


Change My Past

by DrageeKeksi



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blood and Violence, Danny Whump, Depression, F/M, Family Loss, Friendship, Future Fic, Gen, Hurt Danny Fenton, Ice Powers, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Kidnapping, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rape/Non-con Elements, Time Travel, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:34:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 13
Words: 34,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24915433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrageeKeksi/pseuds/DrageeKeksi
Summary: You want to change your life? Your messed up future?Between you and me, let me tell you something. You don't have any future left. So why change something non-existent when you can change something else?What else? The boy asked.The Ghost laughed.Change the past...After a fight with the GiW, Danny loses control over his ice powers. The consequences are disastrous.
Relationships: Clockwork & Danny Fenton, Danny Fenton & Vlad Masters, Danny Fenton/Original Female Character(s), Danny Fenton/Sam Manson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	1. I

I stared at the pure sky. Such mere beauty...   
My body felt numb. I couldn't move any part of my body. But that was ok, either way I didn't want to. I didn't want to stand up and do something with my life.  
I giggled. What life anyway? Nothing was left, literally nothing. I didn't even know if I was still alive or now, what I used to call it, a _full_ ghost. So I just laid there. I floated motionless in the water that reached the horizon in all directions.   
I told myself somewhere out there was earth. Civilization. Home.   
I knew there was nothing. Nothing more but cold water and icebergs. I had looked it up, hopelessly flying over the water after my awakening.   
So now I laid. Just to wait for my own death.   
_To_ _join_ _the_ _ones_ _I love..._  
I sighed. It did get quite boring. Although there was no energy for a quicker death left.   
The little waves washed over my body and created an emotion I thought I had already lost the last days, like everything else: Anger. Anger against the one who had caused all of this. Who started this whole mess.   
A tear left my eye. An emotion. After days of crying, screaming and cursing I finally found something new.   
Hope.  
The realization, not everything was lost, came with a bang. It also brought back a memory. I shook my head. I didn't want to live this through again. I didn't want to remember my former life. I preferred a new life. An idea formed itself in my young brain. _Maybe_ _I had_ _to_ _remember_ _who_ _I_ _was_ _to_ _become_ _someone_ _new_ _?_  
Remember why I needed to become someone new. The reason I could no longer be the boy I was. Never again. The answer came with a little wave of water that washed anger over me again. Maybe it was worth a shot. I knew, in the end there were two possible ways.   
New life, or no life.   
Either way was better than now.   
So it all started on that rainy cold Wednesday....


	2. II.

Wednesday. The worst day ever founded. All the classes I hated, all the people I hated and all the teachers I ... disliked. Damn authorities, gotta be polite. Plus I was pretty tired of ghost fighting last night. I opened the door to NastyBurgers looking out for my friends. Great. I sat myself on a free table. Where could they be? Why did they leave me alone, especially on Wednesday, the day we had no classes together. I only had classes with-   
"Hey Fent-urd!"  
Double great. The big boy stomped to my table.   
"Now what is it this time?", I asked, lowering my annoyance.   
"Gratitude!", Dash laughed and Kwan, his best friend, joined in with a yeah dude. I didn't even allow myself to create hopes, Dash didn't learn something like gratitude, especially not to use it on me.   
"I didn't know today was first April's day.", I answered checking my phone calendar, when something caught up my attention. News alert?   
"Turns out you're actually something worth." My heart crashed to the bottom. Did they found out my secret identity?! I grew paler.   
"Yeah", Kwan admitted.   
"If you wouldn't be in our class your parents wouldn't have taken us all to vacation!"   
Wait what?   
"So for today, we give you the bully vacation!", Dash announced grinning. "But don't worry" he whispered in my ear.   
"Tomorrow you'll receive double back."   
I shivered watching the boys leave and disappear to a rather popular table.  
"Danny you ok?" Tucker suddenly asked crawling out of his hiding place. Great friend... I returned to my phone without responding.   
"Hey I'm sorry dude, but Dash sounded pretty pissed when he shouted your name all over the school." My best friend clarified his view.   
"Didn't seem quite pissed to me.", I mumbled still annoyed but distracted. I tapped on the news alert button. It always showed me the news relating to ghosts.   
"Why? What did he want?" Tucker kept asking. I suddenly started grinning.   
"He thanked me." Tucker started laughing and mocking about me and Dash, but I wasn't paying attention anymore.   
_Alert_ _from_ _Blueville_ _:_ _We_ _need_ _Phantom!_  
 _Citizens_ _of_ _Blueville_ _have_ _recorded_ _many_ _attacks_ _from_ _the_ _sea_ _. "_ _It's_ _a ghost! I_ _swear_ _, I_ _saw_ _it_ _with_ _my_ _own_ _eyes_ _!!" (56,_ _victim_ _)_  
 _The_ _GiW_ _(Guys in White)_ _detected_ _no ghosts_ _and_ _are_ _planning_ _to_ _do_ _nothing_ _against_ _the_ _flooding_ _and_ _the_ _strong_ _stream_ _creating_ _an_ _increase_ _in_ _the_ _drowning_ _statistics_ _._ _Citizens_ _of_ _Blueville_ _are_ _pleading_ _for_ _help_ _from_ _Amity_ _Park's_ _superhero_ _Danny Phantom!_  
I lowered my mobile.   
"They actually need me?" I whispered surprised leaving Tucker with a confused look. All of a sudden my phone rang. I tapped the green button.   
"Hey Danny-boy! Guess what? We're going to-"  
"Blueville..." I muttered slightly pissed.   
"You already know?" My Dad asked surprised.   
"How come the whole schools knows but me?!" I started complaining.   
"And why is my class accompanying us?" A sigh reached over the phone to my end.   
"I guess you're aware of the ghost of Blueville?" I nodded, realizing my Dad couldn't see that.   
"Well since the GiW aren't helping them and neither that brat, someone has to do it, right?" I had to admit he was right. Furthermore this was a chance to get to Blueville and help them, as Danny Phantom.   
"But why the class?" I whined.   
"We can't let you stay alone at home, since Jazzy-bear isn't at home for a week, nor can we take you out solo of the school. That's why we organized a school trip!" He yelled full of enthusiasm.   
"By any chance I can show you how to become a real ghost hunter!" He whispered proudly.   
"Yeah...", my cracked up voice answered lacking the enthusiasm. "Alright! Now then...em...keep up the great work, I guess."  
I listened to the beeping signalling the hung up call. My attention got back to Tucker.   
"Get me an update!" He insistent. I sighed, shaking my head.   
"My parents organized a field trip." I could clearly watch Tucker's mood lighten up.   
"Guess we are going to-"  
"The ghost zone?" Tucker yelled excitedly. My look must have been priceless.   
"What? No Tuck! No!" I laughed facepalming.   
"No way! That's the most stupid thing I've ever heard and I live with my parents!" Tucker shrugged his shoulders while trying to keep me down. I calmed down, but still laughed about his stupidity.   
"Now seriously" I washed away a teardrop.   
"A field trip to the ghost zone. How stupid is that?"

I closed my baggage sighing. I didn't even know why the sigh escaped my mouth. It just appeared out of nowhere.   
"Danny?" My door creaked open.   
"Hey Sam." A peaceful smile formed itself. Sam didn't share my greeting, but I was used to it.   
"Are you really sure about it?" She asked me instead.   
"About what?", I asked, most likely to keep up a conversation.   
"About everything!" She exclaimed with using her hands.   
"Leaving Amity Park alone, dealing a sea monster-"   
"It's not like I have a choice, haven't I?" I interrupted her speech. Sam let herself fall onto my bed.   
"You're right." She whispered. I knew she didn't come to my house to be proven wrong. Sam was one of the smartest persons I knew, it wasn't necessary for her to ask dumb questions. She was obviously nervous. "Don't worry Sam. Amity Park will do it for one week alone. In the meantime Blueville really needs _our_ help. Who else will help them? GiW? These arrogant show offs?" Sam started laughing so I grinned as I continued.   
"My parents? Please, they can't even fight a ghost living under their own roof!" The girl bursted out laughing. I smiled happily, kinda looking forward to our mission.   
"Thanks Danny."


	3. III.

"Don't swim out too far!" Mr. Lancer yelled out at the class, though no one would listen to him. He turned to the Fenton parents.   
"A great idea, I must admit." Maddie waved her hand.   
"No biggie, really. There's nothing better than supporting our kids to have a great vacation for studying this hard a year long."   
"Except for ghosts!", Jack added enthusiastically. I sighed and turned my head to the horizon of the sea, with the sun glittering in stripes. Blueville was a very beautiful city. Although not very safe.   
"I'm going." I told my friends with determination.  
"Good luck, man." Tucker patted my shoulder. Sam handed me this ear-thingy so we could stay in contact.   
"Keep us up.", she added, reluctant to let go of me. I nodded, deeply in thought.   
The water was icy cold as I made my way in. I really didn't want to swim in such cold water, it was unbelievable freezing. Alone this fact could already prove the ghost's presence in the sea.   
Quickly I dived into the water. The deeper the better. No one should get to spot the bright light of my transformation. My lungs started protesting, but I wasn't entirely sure to be deep enough. Opening my eyes in the salt water burned and I barely got to see how deep I was. Before my reflexes to breath started to kick in, I allowed myself finally to transform. Finally I didn't need to keep on wanting to breath as a ghost. Not to mention the coldness wasn't a big deal to my ghost body.  
"Well, time to search." I told myself unmotivated.

While looking into the seaworld I had to admit what a breathtaking beauty I've been exposed. Various fishes in all colours, like a rainbow. And those carols, like in the great barrier reef. Honestly, I never really thought about the ocean and all those things unseen. I was too focused on exploring the universe than to actually care about earth itself.  
«Danny have you found something?» A cracking in my ear, followed by Sam's sweet voice.   
"No." I replied disappointed. Although it must've been a while by now. Beauty yes or no, I was getting frustrated by the fruitless search.  
"How long have I been gone?" I asked eventually. I really should get used to carry a watch with me.  
«For about... 25 minutes I guess.» I groaned exhausted. Probably I should head back. This search was useless. We needed to think of better methods to find and eliminate the terrorizing ghost.  
I heard something unfamiliar and turned my head around. Just in time I turned intangible by reflex. The gigantic shark bit right through me.   
"Holy shit!" I screamed terrified, touching my unharmed body to reassure myself. The shark, maybe he wasn't that gigantic, looked confused around himself.  
«You okay Danny?!» I heard Sam panicking. Her screams in my ear was the least that bothered me. I stayed invisible and intangible (just in case) for another few seconds, until the wild animal decided to leave.  
"No worries." I breathed, my arms still shivering violently.  
"I'll return any minute.", I decided immediately and started making my way back to the beach.   
"Definitely too far and too deep!" I complained to myself under breathless pants. But still no sign of that sea ghost...   
I could see the shore getting nearer so I decided it'd be better to detransform. Finally I reached the surface and took a deep breath. Air filled up my needy aching lungs and that was all that mattered for now.  
"There you are Danny!"   
I almost screamed in shock, my head snapping around. I hissed, knowing the pain in my neck would accompany for a little while.  
"Dad! For how long have you been here....in the water?" I asked nervously and massaged my hurting neck with one hand. Had he seen anything? Hopefully not. My kicking legs to keep me floating in the water touched something slippery. I bit my lip to stop myself of making a scene in front of my dad.  
"As I can tell from the water" he shivered badly. "Way too long."   
I nodded absently and hoped the uncomfortable conversation to be over. I started to continue my former action, swimming back to the shore.   
"The real question is...what have _you_ been doing there? And why the cold doesn't reach _you_?"   
I stopped dead in my tracks. I wasn't used to my father being all sharp and pointing out relevant facts.  
I glanced back, not sure what to say. A part of me wanted to deadpan _Because_ _I've_ _been_ _actually_ _working_ , but that would be a very bad idea. Swallowing my sass, nervousness got the better of me. I started fake shivering and tried to form a correct sentence, which ended up in helpless stuttering.   
"I know your secret already.", Dad explained steadily. My inner world crashed in seconds into millions of shards.   
"How...", but my voice cracked up. I couldn't really accept the downfall of my secret identity.   
My Dad swam closer to me and if I weren't so nervous about my secret identity, I would be surprised seeing my Dad swim.   
"I always knew."   
Wait a second... What does he mean with always? Does he intend to say every action of him, and probably even mom, was an act?  
My dad revealed a dorky grin and a sudden feeling in my gut told me every worry I had seconds ago had been unnecessary.  
"I always knew you wanted to prove what an ambitious ghost hunter you are!" My Dad exclaimed proudly.   
"Say what now?" It fell out of my loose mouth. This still caught me pretty much off guard.  
"It's obvious you want to make your position next to your perfect sister. So you decided to take that ghost out alone, but that's way too dangerous!" My dad continued blabbering. I was glad he did, that left me with plenty of time to calm my frantically hammering heart.   
"Y...yeah...sure..." I scratched the back of my head in silent embarrassment.   
"Just join us in our next patrol and we show you the ropes." My dad offered kindly, although I couldn't really appreciate it.  
Quickly I wanted to swim back to my friends, when he held my shoulder. Again it sent shivers down my spine.  
"I'm so proud of you." My mouth fell slightly opened as I gaped at my father. I felt the need to smile. This actually felt good.   
"You've always been my favourite kid. Well since Jazz hates ghost, but if that changes we'll look over that favourite-thingy again."   
And every good feeling vanished into thin air. I sighed disappointed and pushed myself away to the beach. Thank you very much, Dad.

While the boy was swimming off to the shore after talking to that fat man, he was being watched from a great distance. This someone grinned evily. It had been waiting for the ghost boy for a very long time. Just to prove his fellows he could fight this dump child. No one would ever mock him for his weakness again if he achieved the absolute impossible. Something no one had achieved before him.  
It was finally time up for him, the infamous Danny Phantom.

"...and why should I ever follow their crazy footsteps! Become a ghost hunter!" I ranted to my friends for a long while by now. I couldn't let go o my encounter with my Dad out there and was still very upset.  
"But you kinda are...", Tucker added quietly, yet even very shy to say the wrong thing. And boy he did. Sam's elbow landed with a crack into his side, but damage had already been done.   
"Totally not! I'm not like _them_! I only fight bad ghost to protect innocent people! Ghost hunters are pure racists hunting every ghost down because they're _soo_ evil!" I clarified annoyed.   
"And that is the truth." Sam agreed calmly, trying to find a compromise.   
"But still, you can't change their straightheaded minds."   
I sighed sorrowful. Of course I knew that.  
"I know... I just...sometimes I wish I could..." I admitted disappointed, scratching my arm, eyes locked to the ground.  
"Guys?" Tuckers voice appeared all of a sudden.  
"Maybe that day will come." Sam comforted me. Her voice seemed more important in the moment.  
"Guys...?"   
"After all, we know from the reality gauntlet incident that your parents are ok with your other half." She brought up an example and leaned back satisfied.   
"Guys?!" I wasn't happy with this answer. I grabbed a handful of sand and squashed it in my right palm.   
"But the GiW aren't and if they find out I'm in big trouble." I stated, my eyes fixating strongly on the girl opposite of me. Sam thought a little bit about my statement till she answered.   
"True, but anyway... we'll find a way. Remember, there's always a solution to every problem." She giggled at one of Jazz's favorite motivational sayings.   
"Maybe it's all a talking problem." She offered genuinely a new perspective.  
"Better fix your hearing problems!!" Tucker shouted at us, annoyed and terrified at the same. The boy was sitting between them and therefore the only one to have a good sight of the sea. While looking at him irritated I found something in the corner of my eye.   
"Speaking of problems..." I muttered shocked as the big wave fell over us.

My consciousness stayed, but I couldn't recount what exactly happend as the wave crushed us and pulled us out to the open sea. I know, normally there would be a lot of thoughts storming through my brain, like _That_ _must_ _be_ _the_ _sea_ _ghost!_ Or _Where_ _are_ _my_ _friends?_ _What's_ _happening?!_ _,_ but I've never been in such a situation before.   
My brain only told me fight or flight, but I was unable to do neither of these options. I couldn't even move a single finger, everything was being controlled by the stream. Everything tossed and turned, my vision blurry and spinning around. My breathing gave up as the saltwater forced itself into my lungs. Panic was pumping through my veins and I just pleaded for a stop. The situation felt like an eternity, but eventually it found an end.   
I tried to breath, since everything calmed down, but the damage was already done. Lungs and eyes burned like hell from the saltwater. I tried to swim to keep myself up, but a pain shot from my shoulder. I needed to cry out, but I was unable to, which increased the pain dramatically. Suffocating in my pain I barely diagnosed a dislocated shoulder by experience. Right now I could be glad this wasn't the first time happening to me.   
Without hesitation I set it to the right place again. Finally, the immense pain brought me to cry out loud. I coughed water as I searched for something to hold on.   
Nothing. As the water was out of my lungs, I took big rattling breaths, which increased the burning of my tormented lungs. My eyes gained a little bit sight, but I closed them just in time as the next wave washed over my head.   
Something packed my foot. So the ghost must've already known my identity, I thought before I was pulled into the deep water.

I opened one eye, but shut it very quickly. The water was not only icy but also extremely salty.   
"Finally I've got you, Phantom!" The creature yelled at me. Alright, it was confirmed. I wasted no second longer to transform into my alter ego. The pain remained, but at least my disabilities were compensated.   
"Who are you!?" I shouted at the sea monster. It was big, unbelievable gigantic, probably like a whale though it looked like a squid with hundreds of tentacles. With my left I shot the one holding my leg and floated to safe freedom. Anyway, the shot tentacle regenerated in seconds. Just great...  
"I am the Sea Ghost! Everyone will fear me, so will you, Danny Phantom, under the great name **Squidward** **!** " He yelled out proudly. I burst out into laughing. I mean, I couldn't stop myself!  
"Now that's just hilarious!" A pair of tentacles shot out at me, but I dodged every tentacle with ease.   
"Shouldn't you be seeking revenge by Spongebob?" I mocked him through childish laughtse. Sadly he didn't understand my jokes.   
"You will fear me!!" He shouted furiously, probably irritated by my unexpected reaction. He spinned himself shooting ectoplasm out of every tentacle. I nearly dodged everything, but damage happend. I just hoped the bruises would heal fast or I would have a problem hiding them on the beach.   
I started attacking back. I tried to keep my ice powers down. Yes, it could be effective, but I've had no idea if I could fully control them in the water. I should leave the situation in my control. Better safe than sorry.  
Easier said than done. Squidward wasn't quite weak, he was in his natural habitat and could fight in his full strength. Sure, I could breath, see and fly in the water, but not as effective as in the air. I was obviously slowed down and unlike him I've already had gathered wounds which wouldn't heal in a few seconds.   
The next shot send me flying out of the water. I spontaneously decided to keep flying higher to have a look of the damage caused by the sea ghost.   
"Oh no..." I murmured horrified. Hundreds of people, children as adults thrown out hundreds of meters into the sea. Many rescue workers fishing out victims of the sea and reviving them on the beach. Although they were not bigger than ants to me, I could find the recognition in the eyes of the victims.   
Where were Tucker and Sam? They needed my help! But before I could do anything I felt something being wrapped around my ankle again. But not this time.   
I kicked high up into the sky to pull out that stupid squid. I formed a snowball filled up with ectoplasm and threw it to the irritated Squidward. One thing I wasn't expecting, it actually landed in his mouth. And holy shit he even swallowed it!  
"Ha!" I laughed out my sudden quick triumph. Squidward roared and I could hear the victims cheering from down below. Although I realized too late: Squidward couldn't fly. I thought he was a ghost and so on flying was a given! To my luck the sea ghost wrapped his tentacles around me, pulling me from the height back into the sea.   
What happened to the snowball? Why didn't it explode? Had it yet to explode?!   
I tried to keep us in the air. It shouldn't explode in the water, I didn't know the consequences!   
"Let.... me... go!", I squirmed trying to keep us up, or at least only myself. But man was he heavy. We splashed into the water unavoidable. Gladly I was covered by Squidward, but this was only the beginning. The sea ghost was panting heavily.   
"You stupid .... brat..." I winded myself to get away and back to the surface. Squidward was a ticking time bomb with unknown reach of destruction.  
"Blueville will pay for your mistake..." His last words dressed up as a nasty threat.  
Then I heard an explosion.   
Something drilled itself into my chest leaving a cold painful touch. Squidward did let go of me and fell frozen into the bottom of the sea.   
I whined from the pain which gnawed on my consciousness. No, I couldn't give in. I was kicking my way up finally reaching the air. I changed back to Danny Fenton against my consent, but my power died out. Over the big merciless waves I searched for the shore. When I found it, over 20km far away I knew it was already too late for me.

It was cold. Scratchy sand on her unprotected skin.  
The girl finally gained back her full consciousness.   
"Sam? You okay? I'm so glad!" Her friend answered relieved, but she didn't spot him right immediately. Only the blue cloudless sky. With a pain in her side she forced herself to sit up.   
"Where's Danny...?" she croaked painfully, realizing her missing friend. Tucker's face darkened. She stood up without hesitating. Her vision dared to black out and she swayed a little, but Tucker stabilized her just in time.  
"Calm down Sam. He must be fighting the Sea monster." Sam didn't listen to him. As soon as she felt safe without his support she grabbed a telescope from one of the rescue workers.  
"He'll just appear from out of nowhere, we have to trust him and wait." Tucker kept arguing behind Sam. The girl sighed. She knew he was right, this wasn't the first time happening. All those worries she had were for nothing, why should it be different this time? But then, it was the first fight underwater for Danny, wasn't it?   
"Hey Sam, can you hand me the telescope?" Tucker asked all of a sudden. She shook her head, determined to keep looking.  
"Forget it."   
The boy shrugged his shoulders in defeat.  
"Fine then." He moved the telescope to the place he thought he had spotted something, but couldn't identify due to the great distance.   
"Danny!" Sam cried shocked. She ran to the rescue team as quick as possible, almost tripping on the sandy ground.  
"You need to help my friend!" She pleaded desperately. They ignored her.   
"Please he's still out there, he will drown!" She yelled louder and angrier, even going this far to shake the poor man's shoulder.  
"Sorry miss, but as you see we have all hands occupied. Shannon get the defibrillator!" the man called and dismissed Sam.   
"Hey Sam!" The girl turned her head into the direction. Tears streamed down her flushed cheeks. Tucker had taken over a rescue boat and was waving at her. Without hesitation she jumped onto the boat and took the lead.   
"Ready?" She asked out of politeness. For Danny she would start the machine anyway.   
"Can you even drive that thing?" Tucker yelled over the motor.   
"Of course not." She replied in the exact same volume. He started panicking, hyperventilating and crying unnecessary stuff.  
"Stop whining, be a woman!" She snapped coldly. Danny was about to die, she had no time for this.   
As she started the boat something big fell on it and throw them from their position away. Sam and Tucker laid confused on the inner bottom of the boat, which was in motion now.  
"What the..." Tucker hissed in pain, looking at the new bruise on his hands. The girl stood up, ignoring the new pain the fall had caused. Something was not right and she was in wonder regarding the person driving the boat.   
"Dash? What are you doing here? You do realize we were about to save Danny?" Sam didn't think about the consequences her words could cause, but she didn't believe Dash would actually be helpful. He wasn't really the heroic type of person.  
The big bully didn't respond at first.   
"I have an education as a pool supervisor." He admitted eventually, without looking at the two friends.   
"I'm often here with my parents, so I learned to drive a boat." He explained dryly.  
"Well that comes in handy." Tucker grinned widely and sighed in relieve. Sam cringed, a sour grimace being drawn on her face. This wasn't the Dash they all knew. Probably he had his own reasons, but if these resulted in saving her best friend's life, she was fine with that.  
"Sam, gimme that telescope. I lost track of Fentonio." She grumbled at the horrible nickname, unwillingly even pushing the telescope tighter to a chest. No way she was going to give her last bridge to Danny away and present herself all useless. Instead she looked for herself.   
"There he is!" She yelled after an unnerving time of searching and pointed into the direction.   
"Gotcha." Dash said and turned the boat. A thump alerted them this turn had Tuckern thrown over, but luckily not into the cold sea. Sam gifted him a quick glance to ensure herself the moaning geek was still alright.  
Sam observed Danny. Helplessly he fought the big waves, which threatened to drown him every second.  
Why wasn't he transformed? Maybe it didn't went like he planned? Obviously.   
They almost reached him when a big wave washed over the ravenhaired boy and he disappeared for good.  
Sam lowered the telescope in silent shock.  
"He's gone." Tears formed in her violet eyes again. Her body started trembling uncontrollably.   
Dash looked back, somewhat annoyed and at a complete loss at what to do. Tucker crawled out of his own misery when he recognized the first signs of an upcoming panic attack.  
"He's gone! Why's he gone! Danny is drowning!!" Suddenly she cried out loud. Tucker jumped up and wrapped his arms around her just in time, before she jumped out of the boat. He had expected this and was prepared.  
"Sam calm down! Dash will find Danny!" Tucker threw meaningless words at Sam. It wouldn't call her down, but he needed to say something, to keep himself sane. The bigger boy looked down at the techno geek. Tucker didn't know if Dash was going to make it or if there was anything to save but a corpse. All he knew was that he could do nothing for Danny. He was needed on the boat. Danny's fate laid within his bully's hands.  
"Don't do or push anything." Dash warned them in a serious tone. Next he pulled out water goggles. They may look stupid on him, but there were no jokes to make with saltwater.   
He entered the icy cold water with a jump and left the two friends alone, worrying for their best friend.

Dash's pulse went to an extreme height. The coldness had an immediate effect on his body and his bladder cried. It was uncomfortable and his muscles ached to the extremely cold water, still a smile found his face. He felt like freaking Phantom and as soon as this was over he would be bragging around, definitely! Phantom would be so proud, he thought exploding with joy. But only if he managed to actually save that damn Fenton. Speaking of that nerd, there he was! Finally!   
Dash swam towards him deeper and deeper. As he came nearer he noticed the badly wounds unconscious Fenton had. That couldn't be from the wave, right?   
The bully stretched out his hand to grab that nerd and pull him up, when he saw something pretty crazy. Giant tentacles, covered in ice appeared from the deep. The boy couldn't hold a scream, but realized the immense lack of air it created quickly. The hundred tentacles circled around the vulnerable Danny, ready to pull _him_ into the deep dark hole, so why was Dash feeling hot water over his knees?   
He turned over, panicking. His lungs ached for air and he was beginning to imagine black dots in his vision.  
But on the other hand, he couldn't leave Danny for his fate? Phantom would be still proud if he told him he tried?   
There was no time left. Without thinking properly he swam deeper, grabbed Danny's arm and swam back to the surface. Gladly the tentacles didn't chase after them. They didn't even look very alive, for tentacles. They sunk deeper. Dash didn't bother to observe their downfall and decided to turn his head towards the surface.   
Of course this wasn't all about Phantom. Dash could never forgive himself for letting Danny drown. Danny was a human after all and deserved to be saved. Though he wouldn't tell anyone the truth. Let's just say, he wasn't scared of this monster. Yeah, that made him look fearless and strong.   
He looked down again in doubt. There were no tentacles. As if they'd never existed in the first place. He scrutinized Danny's peaceful face, his fluffy hairs floating in the water.  
Maybe Dash couldn't tell what that thing was, but this boy could. And he would not let him die on him before Dash got to find out what happened down there.

Silence.   
Eternal silence.   
Only the little waves splashing on the boat and the sobs of the two friends.   
When would Dash return? Would he return with Danny? If yes, would he be alive?   
Questions over questions. Neither one could bring themselves to calm down. What was taking Dash so long? Was it the sea ghost? Was it still there? Did it kill the boys?  
Sam started hugging herself and crying silently to herself. Should they go after them? Even then, wouldn't it be already to late for Danny?  
Finally Dash found back.   
Sam jumped up and tumbled to the edge, making the boat waggle. First the bigger boy threw the little one onto the boat, then he climbed up himself.  
"Danny!" Sam cried holding on to the young boy for life. She couldn't loose him again. Dash shivered and was extremely exhausted. He took big breaths, even gagged a little and held his chest in pain.   
Suddenly he realized something, something very important. He started the engine and dragged Tucker to it. Shortly he explained him what to do. Tucker looked overcharged with the situation and responsibility he had been loaded with.  
"I can't drive-"   
"Now just fucking do!" Dash interrupted the geek in a furious scream. Tucker backed away in irritation.  
"Get us away from this cursed sea!!" He kept on screaming like a maniac. Tucker gulped and hesitantly sat down at the front. Carefully he tried to turn the boat around, but with the unexpected speed knocked everyone over. He expected a glare, especially from Dash's side, but the boy looked rather relieved Tucker chose to drive this fast.   
Did Dash see the ghost?   
Dash didn't waste another second. He pushed Sam from Danny away. Sam protested immediately. She would've stormed him and scratch out his eyes, but when she saw Dash reviving Danny, she forced herself to calm down.   
Every time Dash took a deep breath after breathing into Danny's mouth he gasped a fuck. His eyes were ripped open. Sam realized he was still in shock of what he must've seen underwater. A grimace found her face when she heard the cracking created from Dash's heart _massage_. Better some broken rips than a hole in the cemetery.  
Tucker observed the several ambulance vans which were quickly packing all patients. He whistled loud enough for them to notice him. For support he waved with his hand, till he heard someone coughing. Danny rolled to his side coughing water out of his lungs.   
"God fucking damn it..." Dash cursed powerless but relieved. He dropped on his butt and let his head fall on his neck. His eyes squinted when they were exposed to the sun, so he laid his palm over his eyes and forehead. His breathing was uneven and tried to calm himself down.  
Sam held Danny's shoulder, but the boy didn't seem to realize anything that happened around him. He tried to take in a deep breath, which was interrupted by a forced gag. Barely water escaped his lips. He continued his breathing attempts, but kept getting disturbed by painful throw ups, which resulted in his head getting more purple by the second.   
Sam was at a loss on what to do. She winced painfully at his sight. She patted his back and took one hand of his. His fingers were blue and cold. His body trembled violently, but she couldn't tell if it really was for the coldness or the fact that he was suffocating slowly.  
Before any further reactions could be made, they reached the shore. The emergency physicians took Danny immediately away, considering his fatal condition and carried him into the van. Everything happened so fast.   
Seconds later only dust was floating in the air. The three class members, who had been left behind, sat silently in the boat. They heard the rushing of the waves, sobs of Sam and Dash's breathless pants.  
Tucker turned off the engine.  
Every noise died out.  
"We did it?"


	4. IV

White.   
A white ceiling.   
Where the hell was I?   
Minutes ago I had tried to lift myself up, but to no avail. I had no energy left. Nada. I groaned to create attention. Still nothing. After minutes of thinking I came to the conclusion I was brought into the hospital, though I had no idea how I got out of the ocean. All I remembered was the feeling of acceptance. I messed up and was going to pay with my life. I tried to get to the shore, but had to realize I couldn't even get one meter away from my place without being washed over by the waves.   
And there was this coldness, this unbelievable cold sensation. It wasn't like that when I gained my ice powers. This coldness was more painful. It was like my heart was being frozen into an ice clutz while pumping. This horrible pain was still present, but slowly laying off.   
Was I hit by my own ice attack?   
Finally I found the power to sit up though it was exhausting as fuck. I was about to fall back so all my effort would be for nothing. Out of stupidity I protested and my hand searched for a supporting help though not finding it. Which ultimately caused my body to fall from the hospital bed with a loud crash, since I pulled some tables next to me to the ground. The door opened to my luck.   
"Ow..." I moaned. Internally I cursed my inner stubbornness.   
"Honey you ok?" I looked up to find my worried Mom, storming into the room and slaloming around the fallen objects. My Dad entered later on, picked me up and laid me back into my bed. Was that disappointment in his eyes? Or was he just worried?   
"You should stay in bed and- oh look how badly you're shivering!" Mom noticed frantically. She placed the blanket till my shoulders. She was nervous, her fidgeting body movements told me.  
"I'm okay, Mom, really." I tried to reassure her with a dorky smile. She forced up a smile, but couldn't hide the overprotective mother she was deep inside.  
"Your friends asked for you. Shall I let them enter?" My Dad finally spoke up, stopping the embarrassing silence.   
"Sure." I agreed relieved. Not a minute later Sam ran into my room and dragged me into a deep hug.   
"Oh Danny you are ok! You worried me to death." I could see my parents grinning from behind her. I glared at them dangerously. My mother received the message loud and clear, unlike my Dad.  
"We'll just leave you guys alone..." She stammered and led my father by his arm. As they went out the room Tucker replaced them, looking a bit confused at their giggling. Sam immediately left the hug and straightened her shirt, not knowing what to say or do. Embarrassment crept onto her face in form of a shy red.  
"Hey guys." I finally greeted both of them in private.   
"What happened out there?" Tucker asked straight away. He didn't want to be mean or come along as if he didn't care about his friend. It's just, he needed to know what shocked his classmate so hard or even more important, what monster almost killed his best friend. He couldn't wait any longer, so he was dead serious.   
I sighed. It was kind of obvious this question would turn up. Somehow though, I didn't want to talk about that yet.  
"Dunno..." I answered therefore, escaping them by looking out of the window.   
"It's ok, you don't have to tell us if you're not ready." Sam replied with a soft smile. Her eyes though revealed a dangerous sparkle. I locked my eyes with her again. Now she was escaping me, lowering her head. The corners of her mouth sank as her lip started to tremble.  
"And...we're sorry..." She added sorrowful. My mouth fell open and I was taken aback by her words.  
"For what? You did nothing wrong. The sea ghost waited for the perfect moment, it actually knew my identity." I countered back, aiming to ease their minds from whatever they were weighing it.  
Tucker sighed and let his head fall down, his hands in his pockets.  
"But we're still your best friends and teammates. We should've supported you ... somehow."   
Now I understood. They felt bad that I barely got out of the mission alive. I smiled happily.   
"You did enough. I guess without you I would be on the ground of the ocean." I explained warmly. I hoped we could drop the subject, not feeling very comfortable about this topic. Sam though gave me a serious look.   
"But there's still one problem." She began. I sighed defeated. Apparently fun wasn't a recent thing for superheroes, rather problems. I should try to adjust myself quicker to that belief.  
"Actually more than one." Tucker added sheepishly. No, I dearly wished he would be the dorky Tucker I knew, but he stayed dead serious as he spoke. It made me even more uncomfortable and I wished to go back to sleep immediately. I waited patiently for them to fill me in.   
"Dash saw the Sea ghost. The GIW got alerted, mostly to your wounds."   
I nodded a little bit absently. But why should they get alerted by my wounds all of a sudden when they already didn't believe the citizens of Blueville?   
Wait... What was that about Dash? To see the Sea monster he must've been far out to the sea?   
"Dash helped us drive the boat and revive you." Tucker explained, as he read the question from my frowned face.   
"He's actually a trained pool supervisor." Sam added surprised and crossed her arms. I kinda shared that emotion.   
"So let me guess, the school trip blew up?" My friends nodded in unison. I blew away a loose strand of hair. Just great.   
"But the worst part: the GIW want to interrogate you. They don't believe these wounds were created by a tsunami." Sam said with an angered expression. She liked the GiW as much as I did. But what could I say? It took them a completely beaten up child to realize something wasn't right in Blueville. What about the victims who saw the creature with their own eyes? Everything the GiW did annoyed me.  
"When will they drop by?" I asked in defeat, teeth gritted. My body was already tense when Tucker answered  
"Any minute."

My thoughts travelled to Squidward. He promised me something like the citizens of Blueville will pay for my mistake...   
What did it mean? Was it even alive?   
I for myself gained a horrible pain from my bullet. And I was only close by. So what happened to the sea ghost?   
On the other hand, the ghost did have a quick generation time. Hopefully it was only restricted to it's tentacles.   
But how am I supposed to help the city when we're leaving anytime? Not to mention in my condition.  
"Mr. Fenton? Are you even listening?" Huh? I almost forgot about the idiots in White next to my bed.   
"Sorry, my thoughts were actually more interesting." I replied sassy, but in all my honesty. Agent K and O sighed frustrated, one of them even pinching the bridge of his nose. I still had my troubles to keep both men apart. They didn't really look like twins, but their intelligence and emotional level were both at zero. If I had to describe them to keep both apart, K for active, O for passive.   
"Well young man, we asked you how you got those bad wounds." Operative K repeated for my dignified presence.   
I shrugged my shoulders.   
"I wouldn't know. Maybe the tsunami, but everything turned black after the wave met the beach." I lied, sweet like an angel.   
"Although it is quite unusual to gain such wounds from a tsunami. Agent O, would you look at his files?" Agent K responded. He said it in this voice, that knows you're talking shit, but is playing along just to mess with you. I narrowed my eyes in hatred. That man was all fame, reminding me of dear uncle Vlad.  
Agent O started reading from the other side of my bed. I felt surrounded.  
"Let me see: several bruises, cuts, dislocated shoulder, mild concussion, open wounds-"   
"Seriously?" I interrupted him annoyed. Internally I cursed my big mouth, but now they were being ridiculous.  
"People die in tsunamis and you're making a fuss about natural injuries?" I could see my friends facepalming in the background. At least they were more successful in keeping their mouths shut.  
"You finished?" Agent K asked unimpressed. I blinked confused, taken aback by this answer. I didn't know what to respond. I bit my lip, but was raging on the inside. How dared he, shaking of my complaint as a childish rant?  
"Agent O continue." Now this was just hilarious. I groaned annoyed and shifted in my bed.   
"Open wounds with-" He fished something out of his jacket.   
"Traces of ectoplasm?" Suddenly I was dead quiet. I was staring at the little tube filled with a green glowing liquid. I felt like a guilty murderer who had been confronted with the murder weapon. Only a very good lie could get me out of this sticky situation as clean as possible.  
"Look Daniel, I can imagine your inner storm." Bet you twenty you can't.   
"By Fenton Works you've always been raised to ghosts being bad. Now you're on puberty and you start to develop a certain stubbornness. You refuse to listen to your parents anymore. Therefore you start seeing something good in ghosts, because they are the worst. Everything bad and not allowed is cool in your age nowadays. That's why you're protecting the ghost." Agent K ended his well thought theory.   
Well, you figured it out, Sherlock Holmes, that's what I've been hiding all along. Though now I know why you're working for the government.   
"But protecting the ghost means endangering the people of Blueville. Ghosts are bad Daniel, get that in your head! Now, mind telling us how the ectoplasm got into your blood?" K asked, victory at his grasp.  
I was annoyed. Speaking of protecting the people of Blueville. They were the ones to abandon them. And now blaming me to endanger them when I'm actually the only one who cared to help them? That's low, even for them.  
But in the end, I had no choice, obviously. I had to tell them the truth, not the full one though. If I didn't tell them what happened down there, they could figure out my secret identity, maybe.   
Now it was important to prevent that. My next goal would be capturing Squidward so he could safely return to the ghost zone. Maybe he did attack me and hundreds of innocents, but I would protect any ghost from the GIW. No one deserved these experiments.   
I swallowed hard.  
"Yes, it was the Sea ghost."

"We need a plan."   
Sam and Tucker remained quiet. It was as if they were concealing something.   
"What is it? Spit it out." I demanded slightly irritated.  
"Well...we think ..." Tucker began hesitantly, but didn't get to finish his sentence.   
"We think it's a bad idea." Sam took the lead. She seemed very confident of her opinion.  
"Sure! Right, good idea. Let's just head home and leave Squidward to the GiW!" I started mocking them angrily.  
"I bet you fifty they'll never catch that sea ghost." Tucker laughed nervously, trying to lighten up my mood in any way. Well, guess what? In vain!  
"So it's better to leave Blueville alone?" I addressed them disappointed. My friends were silent and looked ashamed to the ground.   
"You saw what happened out there. With your own eyes! That little wave was the minimum he's capable of. Furthermore he wants to set an end to Phantom and he won't rest until he achieves his goal. And you're ok with that?" I scolded them harshly.   
"We are just worried about you. He almost killed you one time and nearly blew up your secret identity. Moreover, in that state you're nothing against that stupid squid." Sam argued. I'd wish she'd keep her voice down. I feared a passing nurse could connect the missing puzzles.  
"Sam's right." Tucker admitted with a heavy sigh.  
My head snapped back. Disappointed and angry I looked out of the window. I had an excellent view of the ocean.   
"Alright fine." I answered without looking back.   
"Go home and do whatever you want." I could see their surprised reflections on the window, so I bet they could see my determined look.   
"I'll stay and save Blueville _and_ Squidward." Moments of silence took over the room until Tucker released a long sigh of defeat. He took off his cap and ran a hand through his hair.  
"How can I help?"

I walked up from the right side to the left of my room. Not that I was that nervous, I just needed to get strong again. Weakly lying in the bed wouldn't get me to that. Sam and Tucker were long gone doing their assigned jobs. I had the whole night time to catch Squidward. Since it was already 4 am I could be also needing the morning.   
I took the Fenton Thermos.   
"Time to go." I said to myself. Shiver overtook me for a moment and I needed the wall to support me.  
"Ugh...I need to ask Frostbite what happened to me." I placed my hand to my core and realized the horrible coldness.   
Alright.   
"I'm going ghost." I whispered out my calling and transformed into the superhero Danny Phantom. It wasn't easy, but I finally could seperate myself into two personalities. The other me detransformed and went back to bed. I just hoped I could keep the charade up. I phased out the building and flew out to the ocean.

I kept searching now hours for Squidward. I grew tired and looked at the clock. 6:34am, the first people already went jogging at the beach.   
"I don't have much time left." I groaned frustrated, one hand travelling through my glowing white hair. I floated down and created a floe of ice. I sat down and regenerated my energy.

 _"Tucker, I_ _need_ _you_ _to_ _sabotage_ _the_ _school bus._ _It_ _can't_ _drive away tomorrow._ _But_ _don't_ _make_ _it_ _too_ _obvious_."   
" _Gotcha_ _!" Tucker_ _winked_ _. I_ _laughed_ _._  
 _"Just stop_ _it_ _,_ _you_ _look like a_ _psycopath_ _having_ _an_ _epileptic_ _seizure_ _." I snarked at him playfully. He_ _growled_ _insulted_ _at_ _me_ _._  
 _"Sam, I_ _need_ _you_ _to_ _have a look out_ _from_ _the_ _beach_ _for_ _Squidward_ _._ _And_ _try_ _to_ _keep_ _innocent_ _people_ _away."_ _She_ _placed_ _her hand_ _on_ _her_ _forehead_ _._  
 _"_ _Ai_ _ai_ _captain!"_ _She_ _joked_ _,_ _causing_ _me_ _to_ _roll_ _my_ _eyes_ _._  
 _"_ _What_ _about_ _you_ _?" Tucker_ _asked_ _._  
 _"How are_ _you_ _going_ _to_ _cover_ _you_ _disappearance_ _?"_ _Sam agreed_ _to Tucker's question._  
 _I_ _grinned_ _._  
 _"_ _With_ _doublication_ _. Or at least I hope so."_ _We_ _all_ _nodded_ _in_ _unison_ _. Sam_ _gave_ _us_ _all_ _the_ _ear_ _-_ _thingy_ _again._  
 _"_ _To_ _stay_ _in_ _contact_ _."_

"Something unusual from your sight?" I asked Sam. I heard a crack in my ear.   
"Actually yes." I jumped up, ready to fight anytime.  
"That man has a pretty bad fashion style. Who wears colour with the right state of mind?" I listened to her mocking voice. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. I was so close to explode.  
"Seriously?" I snarled.  
"We don't have much time le-" I stopped talking as I heard something familiar. It was the sound of slowly freezing water. I turned around. As expected.   
"Danny? What's wrong?" I didn't answer. I was still wondering about the ice trace in the water. How did it appear? And why out of the nowhere?   
"Danny, ok, listen up. The Guys in White showed up. Don't drag attention to you."   
Just in this moment tentacles spread to the sky. Hundreds of tentacles attached with billions of ice crystals. The threat surrounded me. With a loud crash they fell on me and pulled me into the deep ocean.   
Drag no attention to me.  
Roger that.

I laid in my bed looking at the ceiling. The door opened.  
"Honey, we packed your things. Are you ready for the departure?" My mom asked me. She dragged a bag with her, a suitcase as well. I didn't answer.   
"I know, I'd also like to stay, but Mr. Lancer was so stubborn. He said he didn't want to endanger his students. Guess it was worth a try. But at least the GiW came to help, all thanks to you." She sighed, disappointed they didn't even got to see the ghost. While she had been caught up in her monologue she sat down next to me. Right now her hand was massaging my knee. I nodded. My mother's eyes shifted to me and away. She felt uncomfortable, normally I wasn't this mute.  
"Ah right, I almost forgot, there's someone who wants to talk with you. You mind if I let him in?" She quickly changed the subject. Still she received no answer from my side.  
"I'll just...ehm...you can come in!" She called outside the room and left me. I could hear her sighing outside the room in relieve. She was scared of me. Unwillingly my mouth formed a little smile. It disappeared as soon as I saw the person she left me alone with. It was the least person I wanted to see.   
"So I see you're better now." Embarrassing silence, I didn't even look at the new person in my room. Why should I?  
"Well I actually saved your life so ... you owe me a big one." Dash claimed proudly, but nervous. He was probably scared shitless as well. I had nothing human on me besides my appearance.  
"Sure." I answered laconic. Baxter played nervously with his fingers. His eyes shifted the doors.  
"Mind paying it now?" He asked unexpectedly. Without waiting for an answer that wouldn't even come, he sat himself next to me. I cringed slightly, but the grimace I drew was obvious. Although I looked like normal Fenton, the boy immediately paled.   
"What was that thing in the Sea?" He fought off his nervousness and dared to speak again. I shrugged my shoulders.  
"A ghost I suppose." I answered emotionless. Dash shook his head.   
"Yeah I know, but ... what's his deal man? Nobody wants to tell me anything and the others are thinking of me as a paranoid psycho!" He waited for an answer, but gave up.   
"Why did it pull you out that far to the ocean? I ... I read about it. Here." He showed me the article I read in the bus. Therefore he came nearer. I backed away as much as my body allowed. I feared I couldn't sit up again if I fell once. My other half took too much energy, I had to spend it carefully.   
"Normally it doesn't attack so obviously. Only one time it dragged someone deep down, but threw him out again. But in your case, it really wanted to kill you." I sighed. What should I do to keep him away?   
"Maybe because I'm a Fenton?" I tried to lie, making up a good theory as I speak.  
"Yeah, of course, every ghosts hate the Fentons." He agreed sarcastically. He started to calm down next to me.  
"No, just think about it. My parents came to capture the ghost. Obviously the ghost wasn't ok with that and tried to attack their weak spot." Dash's brain was working. I was trying not to burst out laughing. It would be fatal, for my cover as well for my energy level.  
"Yeah...that actually makes sense."   
He mused with one hand on his chin.  
"So the ghost was about to take you hostage and force your parents to leave Blueville!" He shouted out his theory excitedly and jumped off the bed. I scowled surprised. I was going with the theory to kill all Fentons, destroy their minds and so on, but Dash's version did make more sense. Well for his stupid brain at least. Such a powerful ghost would never fear my parents.   
"And now we're leaving Blueville, so it succeeded." He slowly realized. I agreed, although I wasn't listening to this bullshit anymore.   
"Kids, bad news." Lancer said all of a sudden, peeking into my room.   
"Our bus is broken, we need to wait for the departure."  
"For how long?" Dash asked, worry marking his face. I glanced up curiously.  
"Until tomorrow." Dashs eyes widened. Lancer raised one eyebrow at the two boys. He was certain they normally didn't get along very well. He left the two alone.  
"Know what this means?" Dash spoke up into my direction as soon as Lancer was out of earshot. I shook my head tiredly.  
"Of course not, you idiot. This means you're in danger!" The bigger boy snapped. Why would Dash even care?   
"I'll go to the beach. Hopefully I'll meet Phantom so I can brag about how heroic I was...no am!" He jogged to the door.  
"Oh, yeah. Also tell him about my theory." He added sheepishly. Then he stormed out of the room.  
"No wait!" I shouted. Hopelessly I tried to get up, but I was only a mere doublication. Sadly I wasn't strong enough to live two lives at the same time.  
I felt an immense loss of energy. I was fighting someone. Right now.

I created a safe distance to overlook the situation again.  
"You scum!" Squidward yelled enraged.  
"What have you done to me?! I'm freezing from the inside!" He seemed panicking, because he wasn't sure of the fatality of this 'disease'. I didn't answer him, I also didn't know the answer damn! Now I needed a plan! Mhh... A new perspective? A talking problem?  
"Squidward, you need to go back to the ghost zone. I have to leave anytime and then the GiW will capture you! That's a bad organization who will take painful experiments on you!" The ghost gritted his teeths unimpressed.  
"I fear no humans!" He roared at me, baring a lot of teeth.  
"Well it's time for you to start that!" I shouted shooting ectoplasm. Thanks to the regeneration of this ghost I nearly made any damage. I was forced to pause to shiver from a sudden upcoming cold sensation in my core.   
"Ha! I see, you got hit, too!" Squidward laughed spitefully. He used this time to attack, wrapped his tentacles around me.   
"Now tell me... What are you little scum doing about it?" The deep voice sizzled into my ear. I winded myself, feeling disgust and fear creeping upon me. Should I tell him?  
His tentacles tightened around my chest, leaving me with no other choice.  
"T-there's a g-ghost ...." I pressed out. Squidward realized I decided to speak. His tentacles loosened around my chest and air was granted free passage into my lungs. I took a short break to breath, but only as long as to not test Squidward's patience.   
"He trained me in my ice powers...he can help us!" I assured him out of breath.  
"Why should a friend of _yours_ help _me_?" The squid asked hateful. I dodged his hiss that sent spit all over me. Actually, that was a good question of his.   
"Because, like me, he's willing to help everybody in need." I shouted out spontaneously. Squidward laughed out loud, as if this was the best joke he had heard in ages.  
"Like you! Ha ha ha! You're trying to trick me!" Surprisingly the ghost realized and tensed up to my luck. I coughed to breath from being chocked and hammered on his tentacles.  
A strong stream was being created. I couldn't believe my luck, but I was released. I didn't want to test out his gratitude and fought myself through to the surface.   
"Damn, I'm again way too far out to the ocean..." I panted breathless and squinted my eyes to see the shore.   
«Danny are you ok?» Sam's voice appeared in my ear. I barely heard her in between my loud attempts to breath.  
"Yeah..." I breathed trembling.  
<Hey man I'm here!> Out of all voices Tucker's joined in.  
"Tucker what are you doing out here? Weren't you supposed to sabotage the bus and keep the others distracted?" I scowled.  
<First of all: mission completed. Second: you called me to the beach.> He answered proudly. I scratched my head and frowned. I did?  
<Well actually your double did.> Tucker continued regarding my silence. I opened my mouth in an Aha realization. That did make sense.   
"What's the problem?" I asked therefore, given that I still had to train my communications between my doubles.   
<Dash's the problem!> Tucker complained.   
Dash? Why should especially Dash be a problem?  
«What did he do?» Sam mixed in with an annoyed groan.  
«Wait...what's he doing there...?» She blurted out caught off guard.  
"Who? What?" I screamed to get up to date. I was pissed that no one bothered to give me any details. I flew up higher to have a better sight of the beach, but to no avail.   
I closed my eyes and took a calm breath. I was trying to get in contact with my double. I breathed in .... and out. Then I saw my mom. She was talking to me. She brought Dash into the hospital room.   
_I'll go_ _to_ _the_ _beach_ _._ _Hopefully_ _I meet Phantom so I can_ _brag_ _about_ _how_ _heroic_ _I was...no am!_  
Oh no...   
"What an idiot!" I cursed the stupid boy. <«Danny?»> both my friends asked absently, tearing me out of my thoughts.   
"What?" I grumbled annoyed, but I heard something myself behind my back. Slowly I turned around midair, already having a really bad feeling.  
"What the..." I whispered in shock. The gigantic tsunami was building up even higher in the meantime.  
"We're screwed..."


	5. V.

I floated to the monstrous tsunami.   
"Squidward what are you doing!?" I cried out shocked, eyes wide opened.  
"Blueville will pay-" "You will pay for that!" I cut him off annoyed, as well in a terribly panicked state of mind.  
"Even if I can't put an end to Danny Phantom, the immense destruction will make me famous in the ghost zone..." The gigantic sea ghost grinned like he freaking lost his mind.   
"Now no one will mock me for my weakness ever again... My weakness has become my strength!!"   
I blinked confused at the squid, mouth open in case I found a fitting response.   
What weakness? He is one of the strongest ghost I've ever come across, he could've easily drowned... me...?   
I looked back to the beach the tsunami was obviously heading to. An idea formed itself. If it wanted to fight me, the easiest move would've been to attack Amity Park. But it didn't. It attacked Blueville. The nearest city from Amity Park that is next to the ocean.  
I remembered my double's conversation with Dash. The articles said no obvious attacks that could prove a ghost... Only one time, but different compared with my case.   
_Victim_ _age 56'._   
He saw the ghost, unlike me he was spit out of the ocean, nearly unharmed which made his statement worthless to the GIW. But not for Phantom...   
I think I found Squidwards weakspot.   
I flew up to him in high speed. I charged my powerful attack and kicked him out of the monster wave.   
"How about a change of locations?" I proposed grinning widely. The ghost recoiled a lot, screaming all the way. Squidward landed on the hot and dry sand, shortly after I floated down behind him. As expected the ghost couldn't take off. Like earlier it couldn't fly.  
About 50 tentacles pointed into my direction, but I had no difficulties dodging them until no ectoplasm appeared out of the tentacles. Squidward looked dried out.   
"Looks like you got beaten by little sandcorns." I joked, secretly very relieved, and let a handful of sand go with the wind.   
I heard applauding. A crowd had built itself around me. I found a sorrowful Sam in the croud, grinning sheepishly and scratching the back of her head. So much for keeping innocents away from the beach...   
I sighed happily and shook my head with a soft smile. It didn't matter anymore, right?   
"Phantom! Phantom, phantom!" I turned to the voice, confusion marking my face.  
"Just one day ago I helped that worthless dude from class, I didn't have to, but I _did_ save his life!" Dash exclaimed excitedly, like a 3 year old toddler that managed to take a shit all by himself. So what was I supposed to do now? Wasn't it obvious I was socially incompetent?   
A crack in my ear.   
<Tell him you're proud." Tucker constructed me.  
"Why?" I asked bluntly, forgetting to lower my voice down.   
"Because you inspired me, I wanted to be like you, a superhero!" Dash answered instead. Like before I couldn't do anything with this conversation so I held onto my ear-thingy, hoping for Tucker to convince   
<You can't thank him as Fenton, that would mean nothing to him. But if you thank him as Phantom you would make him unbelievable happy. Without him you wouldn't stand here.>   
I was surprised by Tucker being so deep and wise.   
«Tuck's right.» Sam admitted. I looked at her and saw her wise smile. Ok, Tucker being all smart is less convincing, but I know from experience to trust Sam on literally everything. She's awesome.  
"That... makes me unbelievable happy, thank you." My unsure voice got pressed out uncomfortably. Note to myself, never let myself get saved again, especially not by Baxter. This is literally hell.  
"And... I'm really proud...?" I ended in a question, unsure how to proceed.  
"Dash. Dash Baxter." My bully misinterpreted the situation, grinning to both ears. Disgusting.  
"Dash Baxter." I ended my sentence, playing along. Finally I could turn back to Squidward. Ironically I sighed, now that I could deal with the more dangerous part.  
"Now back to you, Ghost of the Sea." I confronted him loud and clear, standing straight and confident. Yeah I admit, I did want to make the situation as epic as possible.  
"You're going to have a trip back to the ghost zone." I fished out my thermos and threw it up, catching it with my left and placing my right hand over the lid. The cheering had gotten so loud, I could easily talk to Squidward in private.  
"Any last words?" I asked the dried out squid, my hand dancing over the lid. The ghost forced up a smile.   
"Good luck..." It spit out, green glibber dropping down his lips. I didn't question him. I just took out the Thermos and sucked him up without batting an eyelid. The cheering got even louder though I kept thinking about Squidward's last words. What did he mean?   
The crowd calmed down. I was about to calm down as well, when my modified hearing filtered out a little girl's voice, somewhere in the crowd.  
"Mommy, what is that?" I could imagine the little tuck on her mother's shirt, both peeking at the sea. I for myself looked at the ocean, like the minority of the crowd. My eyes widened.   
Impossible.

«Danny what is that!» Sam screamed in my ear. I cringed, quickly moving nearer to the water.  
"Oh no oh no oh no!" I pleaded panicky, this shouldn't have happened, it couldn't, just ... No!   
The crowd started panicking, everyone tried to ran away, screaming mindlessly, bumping into each other.  
<Danny do something!> Tucker yelled in my ear and I suppressed a wince. No time for that.  
"Yeah well like what!?" I shouted back in panic, my breath going shallow and rapid. We all thought about it for a second, when Sam's voice appeared.   
«Freeze!»  
I hesitated irritated.  
"Yeah not the right moment for jokes..." I commented annoyed, looking into the crowd for my friends. I didn't find them.  
«I'm not joking, I'm serious! Freeze the tsunami!» Sam repeated in a pretty convinced tone.  
<That monster wave? Impossible!>   
"I agree with Tuck for once." I added in a low quiet voice, giving up on finding them and observing the slow threat.  
«Well guys, you got any better idea?»   
I bit my lip. She was actually right. I did have no better idea.   
"I'll try." I confessed her victory and began flying towards the tsunami. I took a deep breath and concentrated myself on my ice core. My chest tightened painfully, a hitching gasp escaping my throat unwillingly. Eventually I pulled myself together and my ice powers appeared im my open palm.   
At first it looked impossible and I lost my energy pretty fast. I took my double from the hospital back and immediately received more energy. With a tiny bit screaming the wave froze in motion up to the little top.   
From the ear-thingy I heard cheering on the beach. I was still in position, freezing the wave.   
«Danny it's done, you can't let go now.»   
Sam confirmed relaxed and amazed.  
<Man that sculpture looks amazing>  
Tucker barked into my ear unnecessarily.   
Freezing the tsunami was hella exhausting and I couldn't let go yet. I literally sweat my guts out.   
«Danny the wave is frozen.» Sam tried again, but I knew better.   
"No..." I pressed out. "It's unstable... as soo... as soon as I stop freezing it, it will... ugh... it will break the ice..." I panted exhausted, every part of my body trembling.  
Sam realized her mistake in an instant. The wave was in big motion, of course it wouldn't freeze easily like that. Her plan had been a waste of time and precious energy.  
"What... now?" I asked realizing I had nearly no energy left. I couldn't let go, but I knew I would be.  
"I'm running out of... ugh..." I tried to warn them, but my sentence ended earlier. I think she knew where I was heading to.   
«Give me a minute» She demanded in a high and frantic voice. I couldn't wait a minute. The ice started cracking as my ice power minimized.   
"Hugh.... now!" I cried, tears already forming in my eyes and my body ached to no end.  
«Danny try freezing the ocean!» Sam suggested foolishly. If I could only laugh. "I... gnhh... no more... uh!" I gasped, nearly falling back. The cracks grew bigger and my ice beam smaller.  
«Ok Danny, change of plan, come back!»   
Easier said than done. Suddenly the pain in my core returned with such a violence. I screamed out loud and fell down to my knees on the floe I had created earlier. I clenched my hands to my chest and was panting, my eyes torn apart in shock.  
«Danny get away!!» Sam yelled loudly in my ear, but I couldn't react this fast.   
I closed my eyes.  
The wave cracked loudly and the water mixed with the hard ice crashed upon me.

The girl on the beach let her hands sink powerless.   
"Oh no..." She murmured shocked.  
"That's all my fault..." She didn't wipe her tears away, she let them stream freely down her cheeks. The crowd started screaming again. Moments ago they we're cheering and taking pics of the oversized ice sculpture. Now they were fearing for their life. Again.   
All of a sudden it cracked in her ear.  
«New plan...» The voice travelled over to her, exhausted, done.  
"Danny!" She cried out relieved, hanging onto her ear-thingy.  
"I'm so glad you're-"  
«Later.» He interrupted her. Danny wasn't disappointed, was he?   
«I need you guys to do something. Bring all the people of Blueville as near as you get them to the shore...» Her best friend instructed both, his throat sounded sore.  
"But how..."   
«Anyhow!» Phantom interrupted her unnerved. Sam shut her mouth, never really met Danny this serious.  
«Tucker, hack into every digital media, Sam gather every citizen around, select new members for control like Dash!»   
"Dash?!" The girl cried in bewilderment.   
«Just do it!»   
Sam crunched her teeth in discomfort, but listened without complaining anymore. The situation was too serious.

I fought my way back to the sky. From the height I could tell we didn't have more than 5 minutes left. But if I could turn Blueville intangible we could do it.   
The problem?   
I couldn't turn everything intangible. I needed them to gather around as tight as possible and hope I had enough energy left.   
I made my quick orders to my friends. My head hurt as hell, I felt for it and my hands returned dark red and green. Some ice must've hit my head while I was trapped in the wave. I managed my way back to the beach.   
"Everyone meet at the shore or even the nearest point! Don't be shy, touching people is pleased to gain as much people as possible to the beach!"   
I smiled gratefully. Thank you Sam.   
I looked the beach along. Not only classmates but also completely unknown strangers were following my orders and spreading their knowledge around. Hopefully it would work.   
I took a deep breath and placed my hands on the ground. I turned intangible and so the place all around me.   
"Tucker...how's it going..." I pressed out again.   
<Yo Danny, I hacked myself into all smartphones, tv's, laptops->   
"Get to the point!" I yelled annoyed. I was really stressed out, this was a big crisis.  
<I'm connected with a helicopter and have the perfect view over Blueville.> "Good job..." I gasped, kind of surprised.  
<Danny it's not enough...>   
"What?!" I yelled shocked. My powers disappeared into thin air and I fell to my knees.   
"I'm so sorry guys... I messed up. Again." I apologized in a whine, shame killing me slowly from the inside.  
«No, not like this.» Sam protested confidently, her fingers curled into a fist.  
"But I have no power left to turn a whole town intangible." I gazed towards the sea. No horizon. Only a murderous tsunami, leaving no survivors.  
"But maybe only the citizens?" I looked up seeing Sam walking towards me. She lend me a hand. My own hand was shaking, but seconds later we were standing hand in hand. She placed her megaphone onto her lips.   
“Guys, you have to listen! Now! Grab anyone's hand in _front of_ and _behind_ you! You don't know the person? Grab his hand! Not only your life depends on it, also the lifes of the ones standing _behind_ you depend on it." She yelled, the crowd silently processing her words.  
I nodded to thank her.   
"How much time do we have left?" She asked. I shrugged my shoulders.   
"A couple of minutes I guess." I frowned, not too convinced of victory.  
"Then fly up and contact the news, Tucker will get you on every screen he finds. Maybe the people on the beach know, but not the rest of 'em." She explained her plan.  
I gave my understanding and took off.   
"To a hero they will listen..." She whispered hopefully, thinking I wouldn't hear her.

"Citizens of Blueville. This is a very important message you need to obey. Your life depends on it! In a few minutes a tsunami will reach the shore of Blueville. It will mercilessly destroy everything in its way. I can't stop it nor can I turn the city intangible. The only solution is to get _you_ , all the people, intangible.   
To achieve that I need you to do the following: get out your house and run or drive the way to the beach. As soon as you reach the crowd make sure to grab a hand in front of you. If that's done be ready to grab hands from behind. The ones who are not capable of doing so their own need help, like children, disabled or old people and animals. If you are alone in your house and have no one to help you, call the following number immediately. There's no time left.   
And so on I hope that in this little time we have left, we can go hand in hand together to a new life."

I flew around and controlled everything. I watched children with their pets, parents guiding their parents and a group of disabled people with their caretakers.   
"Tuck, gimme an update from the heli." I demanded shortly and controlled, not like earlier when I had my breakdown.  
<Perfect line, everyone is connected, no hole in sight.> He updated me briefly.  
I thanked him, that's when I heard something.   
"Daddy please...get over with it!" I flew to the direction and phased into to house. A young woman was pulling at her old father while crying hysterically.  
"Thank god Phantom! Please help me get him out!" A young woman, maybe in her earlier thirties and gold blond hairs tied into a messy bun.  
"Forget it!" The old man freaked out.   
"I'm not letting that freak play with my mind nor body!" He spat at me, eyes torn apart by unreasonable paranoia.  
"Ghost, tch... intangible, ha!" He laughed in a mean way.   
"Please sir, you have to trust me, I'm just trying to hel-"   
"You're a ghost. Ghosts are bad and over." He hmphed and crossed his arms.  
I grew angry, given I was already quite irritated. Why was my help never fully appreciated?   
"It's ok if you don't trust that kid and you never have to again. Just this time!" The woman tried to speak his language, forcing up a trembling smile.   
I nodded, calming down a little.  
"Your daughter's right. Either way you have nothing to loose."   
"No I am not a fool and I rather die sane than insane and therefore I'm putting my foot down." The old man decided.  
«Danny, come down. It's almost time up!» Sam spoke into my ear. I grumbled annoyed, but not towards her. What was I doing? Wasting my time on _one_ mean old guy than saving the ones who actually believe in me?  
"Ok mister. I don't care about your _personal rules!_ " I spat out. The old man looked surprised. Yeah, I'm not only the goody-two shoes guy.  
"You're ok with protesting? Fine! You're ok with the consequences of death? Not my problem! But if you're ok with leaving your daughter alone and next to her building up a new home, also organizing a funeral-!" I took deep breath from talking without a pause.   
"That's _your_ family problem. I'm busy saving the ones actually believing in me."   
With that I flew out of the house. I just hoped they would get themselves to the crowd, at least the young woman.  
"Tucker, is everyone safe and connected?" I held the ear-thingy out of habit. It cracked in my ear.   
<Everything under control.> The answer came short, unpersonal.  
I smiled warmly.   
"Are you also safe, Tuck?"   
I heard him giggling on the other side.  
<I'm nearer to you than you think.> He answered. I looked over to Sam, who was standing at the front near the water, and found a smiling Tucker holding his ear-thingy.   
"Hey guys." I greeted them floating down, sandcorns swirling in the air. All three of us observed the roaring tsunami.   
"It looks faster the nearer it gets..." Sam whispered nervously. I agreed with a silent nod.  
"We need to figure out the right moment, I don't have enough energy to keep so many people intangible for long." I explained, still looking a bit absently at the tsunami.  
They nodded.   
We didn't have to wait too long. I turned my back to the wave and looked in the eyes of my friends, spreading confidence. I opened my hands and held them towards them.   
"Ready?" I asked. They took my hands. On the right Tucker, on the left Sam.   
"Always."


	6. VI.

I was biting my pencil. Derivation of f(x)= 4x^2+7,5  
I knew I was slowly getting the hang of it, but this exercise was quite tricky.   
"Hey little brother." I returned the greeting without looking at her.   
"Watcha doing there?" Jazz asked innocently, looking over my shoulder. Her hairs tickled me, leaving me to a drastic reaction.  
"Nothing!" I yelled hiding my homework. I also didn't like it when she interfered with my stuff.   
"What can I do for you, big sis?" I asked her in a mocking way. I turned around in my desk chair.  
"Well... uhm... actually..." She scratched her head.   
"Actually I just wanted to make sure you're alright. You know, after the Blueville incident."   
Right, the Blueville incident. That's how we called it. My smile dropped almost immediately.  
"I'm fine. You can leave now." I croaked dismissal and turned back to my homework. My big sister sighed and sat herself down on my bed.   
"Danny, why are you like this?" My eyebrows went down and I started to stare daggers at her.  
"Seriously? You weren't even there." I hissed offended.  
"Yeah, but I saw on TV how you-"   
"-messed up, embarrassed myself and destroyed a whole city!" I ended her sentence in shame, closing my eyelids to soothe the burning.  
"No! How you saved thousands of innocents and stood up against-"   
"-a strong sea ghost, yeah yeah I get it. I'm amazing, thank you bye." I gave up and tried to get rid of her with the language she was speaking. I dragged her out of my room. Of course I wasn't convinced.  
"That... No! I was heading to say something different-"   
The door closed.   
"And you know that!"   
I laid against the door and slid down on the cooling ground.  
I sighed.   
Why wasn't she getting how serious this situation was? Why didn't anyone get this?   
I opened my phone but hesitated. Should I really?   
I pressed the Google button.   
Now or never. _Phantom_ _Blueville_ , I typed in. I took a deep breath as I tapped to search. Many articles and videos showed up. Of course, we had arrived in the time where the world was digitizing. I tapped one random article.

 _Phantom_ _saving_ _Blueville_ _!_  
 _An_ _amazing_ _act_ _of_ _the_ _famous_ _superhero_ _Danny Phantom. Just_ _recently_ _,_ _thousands_ _of_ _citizens_ _are_ _thanking_ _Phantom_ _for_ _their_ _lives_ _._ _It_ _took_ _the_ _ghost hero_ _three_ _attempts_ _,_ _between_ _freezing_ _the_ _monster wave_ _and_ _turning_ _the_ _whole_ _city_ _intangible_ _,_ _but_ _in_ _the_ _end_ _he_ _succeeded_ _,_ _successfully_ _! Everyone_ _survived_ _the_ _sea_ _ghost story_ _and_ _..._

I yawned. I've already read those articles, right after the incident, because I was so worried someone could've gotten hurt, or even worse, died. I could've never forgiven myself.   
On the other hand, it is kinda great to end the superhero story with a perfect mission?   
I clenched my knees to my tightening chest.   
_End_ _..._   
I didn't imagine it like that. To be honest, I didn't imagine at all how my superhero career would end.   
So what would I do with my ghost side? Turn onto the bad side and trick those ungrateful human beings?   
Kinda funny, but no. There were people who appreciated my work.   
I gritted my teeth, if it just hadn't been for those dumb idiots in White! I went back to my mobile, turning the Google section into videos. The best videos showed up. Now I'd like to see the situation from different eyes.

"Oh my god! The fucking wave just went fucking through us! I can't believe this actually happened!!" Someone, or maybe everyone screamed behind the camera. The one filming the action was in the front row, so it got a clear sight of me, uh, I mean Phantom. Speaking of Phantom, the hero just fell down to his knees, panting heavily. Cheering for their saviour went through the crowd. Funny, I didn't remember this happened. And where are Tucker and Sam? They were holding my hands, but are nowhere to be seen in the video. I must admit, they're good. Up to the end they kept their friendship with Phantom successfully secret. The cheering got down, it went all pretty fast.   
"We've got you Phantom! Hands up and get on your knees!" Someone yelled behind the camera. A few seconds later the two men had fought their way through the crowd.   
"He already _is_ on his knees..." The other agent mumbled.   
"Then...just... Hands up Phantom! We've got you!" The man in a white suit and black sunglasses demanded.  
Phantom finally looked up, straight into a ghost gun.   
"What's that bullshit about..." He asked out of breath and obviously tired.   
"You are under arrest!" The bald agent yelled.  
Phantom crawled up, much to the disadvantage of the GIW, since they ordered him to kneel before them.   
"For what? Saving the city? Oh I'm sorry, I won't do that again." Phantom deadpanned easily. He was about to fly away when suddenly a shot was heard. The ghost child stumbled to the side, people screamed in panic. The video shook a lot and the vision was mostly blurry.  
"Woah! Be careful, these things are dangerous!" I heard the ghost yelling. The kid wasn't taking the situation seriously. I was though, finally.   
"Danny Phantom, you are under arrest for destroying the city." The operatives confirmed emotionless.  
The crowd went wild, so did Phantom.   
"Excuse me? Are you blind or somewhat? That wouldn't explain any of my actions and the squid ghost!" Phantom raged, in the background several insults being thrown at the the two dumb agents.  
Fun fact, a few weeks ago I was talking with these two idiots. Now they're on the internet! I feel so honoured!   
"You did this all on purpose!" They accused the superhero. A few seconds there was silence.   
"What the... Of course I did this on purpose! You think I just stumbled in here and thought _Well_ _isn't_ _that_ _just a great_ _day_ _to_ _freeze_ _the_ _ocean_ _and_ _turn_ _the_ _whole_ _city_ _intangible_ _?_ " Phantom shrugged and lifted one eyebrow.  
The crowd started laughing and shouting _Roasted_!, but I couldn't laugh about this anymore. I knew how this 'conversation' would end.   
"Quite the sharp tongue you got there, this will be your downfall, sooner or later!"  
The ghost boy had definitely nothing to comment on that, but didn't take it serious anyway. I had a bitter taste in my mouth.  
"We can prove that you have only bad things in mind, like all the other ghosts." Agent K said proudly.   
"We do?" Agent O whispered, but not quiet enough for the camera.   
"Sure we do~!"   
Phantom proved himself to be patient. He crossed his arms and waited for the game to end, his foot tapping irritated on the ground.  
"You have my undivided attention."   
Now agent K spat out his theory.   
"You only want to gain our trust and when you'll receive it, you and your ghost friends will take over the human world! But not everyone is stupid, 'cause the GiW will not fall for that plus we will help the innocents try to recognize the traitor!"   
Some of them laughed, some of them were angry, some even seemed to think over this theory. Still everyone was awaiting Phantom's reaction.   
"So you are telling me, for all the several times I saved Amity Park and now Blueville, you are calling me a traitor? Your mothers ain't taught you how to say thanks?" The saved peoples were laughing, but Phantom stayed serious. Finally I could identify with my alter ego again. The superhero realized how serious the situation had become and how pissed he got.   
"Well you can prove yourself worthy by going into a court of law and fairly sort it out with the government." The kid facepalmed himself.   
"Well now I know why you work for the government, but seriously: are you really that stupid? On daily basis I save your asses and demand nothing for it, even when my private life suffers due to my alter ego. You want to know what my motivation was? Because I thought this was the right thing to do, while I had the power to do that. And yes, I was used to the lack of appreciation I received for my work, but now you have gone to far." Phantom walked closer to the GIW agents, his eyes flashing red, the agents backed away.   
"Still I stand here, being accused as a traitor and dragged into justice because of saving the innocents too often. So you know what? I'm done." It was dead quiet, but behind the camera I heard a please no.   
"I'm done with saving your ungrateful asses! I have no motivation left, to suffer for your problems and be confronted with this bullshit. I am fucking done!" The agents got a straight shot at Phantom, since he was standing a few inches in front of the guns. Dust and sand was floating in the air. When the vision cleared, there was no Phantom to be seen. Also for the following days, Phantom never appeared to a ghost attack. Never again.

"I screwed up."   
"No you didn't, you saved thousands of lives." Sam motivated me during lunch time in school. My head was resting in between my hands.  
"I don't mean that, and besides, without me the tsunami wouldn't have happened in the first place. So for the record, the destruction of Blueville really goes on me." My head dropped to embrace my arms and hide my face.  
"That's not true..." Tucker murmured. I sighed.   
"Guys... I ended the superhero thing and that was just the biggest mistake of my life! This was our thing, we did that together. It was so selfish of me, especially regarding the citizens whose safety will suffer because of me."   
Sam showed me to quiet down, but no one would be listening to the looser table.   
"I mean, I owe it to them. Without the accident the ghosts would've never gained access to the human world." I kept on going, not really bothering about anything else this moment.   
"Well, it happened and that's for real. We can't change that, we can only change the future." Sam said softly.  
I smiled at her. Why was Sam's wisdom endlessly...   
"So, what should we do?" Tucker mixed in concerned.  
"In some point Danny is right. He retired and coming back now would be extremely dumb. Especially since the Blueville incident." Tucker added and I groaned uncomfortably.  
"Buut-" Sam started her idea with a slim grin.  
"The GIW are already having troubles with the current ghosts. In a near future, Amity Park will have a problem, a ghost problem. Then they will remember their former hero and will plead for help. Phantom reappears and saves the day!" She finished her monologue excitedly. To my ears it sounded a lot like fiction. My head rested on the table.   
"What if they don't need Phantom ever again?" I felt her hand on my shoulder.   
"Don't worry about it. The day will come."   
I shared her warm comforting smile.

We walked all together to the Nasty Burgers and were chattering about anything.   
"I heard about this new movie coming to the cinema soon." Tucker told us excitedly.   
"What's the deal?" Sam asked slightly interested.  
"Well there is this kid who has an accident, gains superpowers and then becomes-"   
"Can't we take a break of the superhero stuff, can we?" I pleaded embarrassed. I felt a bit selfish, but I knew, if this conversation was to continue I would throw up in the next bin.   
"I guess no." Sam answered and pointed to the Nasty Burgers.   
"A demonstration?" I noticed confused.  
"In front of the Nasty burgers?!" Tucker blurtes out in deep shock.   
We moved closer to the mass of people.   
"Not only one..." Sam realized, adding to my former sentence.   
"Get rid of Phantom! Ghosts are bad!" A girl with brown pigtails and big glasses shouted, holding up an oversized plate.   
"Ouch..." Tucker implied and I glared annoyed at him.  
"Go home, bitch! We need Phantom!" My mouth fell open when I spotted the aggressive leader of the 'Pro Phantom' Group.   
"Dash?" I yelled out confused. The bully locked his eyes with me.  
"Get away nerd, I have important things to do." He hissed at me. I rolled my eyes and set back moving, listening to his words behind my back.  
"Phantom is a nice guy and a true superhero! He was totally right with you being ungrateful!" The Bully yelled without pausing.   
"Kinda nice of him." Sam stepped next to me. I shrugged my shoulders.   
"Somehow, maybe." I murmured unconvinced.  
"Phantom destroyed Blueville! His presence lures ghosts to us!"   
I tried my best to ignore the conversation that consisted of people screaming at other people.  
"Phantom did everything to save us and we should show sympathy to him quitting the job!"   
I really tried my best.  
"Ghosts are bad! There are no exceptions!"   
I even walked faster, making it difficult for my friends to catch up.  
"We're screwed without him, the GIW don't have what it takes to save Amity Park."   
My sensitive hearing did the rest.  
"That's all of the ghost's plan!"  
The words were burnt deep into my consciousness.

"Wow, people are going crazy over my announcement!" I realized surprised, as we finally made our way into the restaurant.   
“And you thought _you_ were making a fuzz about it." Tucker laughed.   
"But still, I'm surprised Dash is the leader of the Pro Phantom campaign. I mean, he's standing up for someones right... That's all he's ever been against with, especially regarding me!" I confessed and sat down. Sam grinned and looked at her own bottle of water.   
"Well, you did make him pretty happy on the beach." She giggled. Hearing her words I immediately drew a grimace.  
"First of all: ew!" I answered, which made her realize the two different meanings.   
"Second: it's not like I had any choice." I defended myself and crossed my arms.  
"Remember how pissed you where when you heard about him walking to the beach?" Tucker laughed, remembering innocent nostalgia. Surprisingly I kept my emotions in control and it even felt good to talk about that day without hating myself.  
"Hey! My first plan was to keep everyone away from the danger zone. How could I've known that going to the danger zone was the only way to save the people?" I growled, but my mood finally cleared up and I even starting smiling.   
"Yeah yeah, fine!" Tucker agreed, but still amused.   
"Hey Danny..." That is when I noticed Sam's mood being down.   
"Back to the no choice thing." So I got her thinking over point two.   
"Would you ever reveal your identity?" She asked innocently. I almost spilled my drink.   
"Of course not! Hell would be going on in Amity Park!" I yelled quietly.  
"But if you had no choice?" She added now, her voice sounding very unsure.   
"Remember the gauntlet incident? The GiW would capture me with ease. And then? How did they call it? _Lots of experiments, like lots of lots of_ _painful_ _experiments_." I imitated agent K in a deep and stupid voice.   
"And what if your life would depend on it? Or even ours?"   
Without knowing it, she got a little too far. This question always kept me awake at nights. I bit my lip, careful not to draw blood.  
"That will never happen. I will do anything in my power to prevent this case. Don't worry." I lied. Wasn't it predictable that it was only a matter of time before my secret would be blown. I was kind of certain that soon the normal days of having a secret identity would be over.  
"Maybe you're right." Sam nodded. She didn't seem convinced as well.  
"We shouldn't think about that. Just think about the yummy burger and the delicious coke!" That was typical of Tuck, still I had to grin, because it actually worked. I bit into the burger and it was delicious!


	7. VII.

"Mr. Fenton?"  
My head shot up.  
"Sorry?" The whole class was staring at me. Embarrassing silence filled the room.  
"I was asking how Faust and Mephisto actually met." Mr. Lancer repeated the question annoyed. Arms crossed over his chest, a gigantic ruler in his right hand.  
"Uhm... Mephisto turned into a dog and Faust adopted it?" I spoke into the room. I wasn't quite sure if the answer was right. Directly after I received the book I read the summary, but never the book itself.  
"Well, you summed it up not badly." I sighed relaxed. Thank god.  
"But not good enough! _We_ want to get into the book, even deeper." The class groaned annoyed regarding the teacher's enthusiasm.  
"What was happening in Goethe's head when he was writing the book?" Lancer startes one of his famous monologues and glanced out of the window.  
"Nothing good probably." Sam whispered to me, but somehow everyone could hear it. The class laughed and Mr. Lancer's head snapped back at her.  
_«Please pay attention to this important announcement.»_  
Everyone looked up at the speaker as the announcement happened suddenly, gladly interrupting Lancer's rage.  
_«Every student and teacher are requested to go to the mayor's place. I repeat, this announcement affects every student and teacher. All classes are cancelled for the day.»_  
The class started cheering loudly, but I couldn't blend in. What was so important to go immediately to the mayor and cancel all classes?  
"This can't be good..." I mumbled with a concerned look.

And so on whole Amity Park found itself on the place later on. Everyone was chattering about what the big announcement could be. A man stepped forward to the micro. It was our old mayor.  
"Greetings citizens of Amity Park. I wanted to thank you all for coming this soon. We have a big announcement to make. Well actually, the Guys in White have."  
My eyes widened in shock. What are they up to now again? A mass of men in white appeared on the stage. Some were cheering, other were booing. I stayed neutral. Agent K and O stepped forward to the micro.  
"Thank you very much." They thanked the mayor emotionless and quickly exchanged places.  
"We, of the government, have the goal to keep the city and the ones living in it safe. Sadly we suffer to a bad infection, called the ghosts."  
The crowd went quiet and attentive.  
"As you may have noticed we do have problems dealing with the recent invasion of ghosts."  
Invasion? That's a low quote of ghost attacks since I stopped working. How overdramatic they are!  
"All to the thanks of Phantom. We pissed the ghost off and now he keeps sending his friends to suffocate us. But Phantom chose the wrong enemy. Not with us! We will free Amity Park from the ghosts, once and for all!"  
No one applauded. Everyone was sceptic.  
"Uhm... With this new invention!" The agent brought back the enthusiasm. The crowd got wild. But unlike expected, they actually started laughing regarding the small box the agent held up high. I myself had to laugh a little.  
Agent K grinned and opened the box. The first row started to scream, then the second, the third, up to my row. First I smelled something unbelievable disgusting, but soon a pain joined in, making me stumble. Gladly I was caught by Tucker. He put me in between Sam and himself, so they could both stabilize my standing.  
"What's wrong Danny?" Sam asked in a quiet voice, as not to alert any bystanders. A terrible feeling of nausea crawled into my head. It made my surroundings spin around and my breakfast feel wrong.  
"I know it smells horrible, but really? That bad?" Tucker added, thinking I was reacted overly dramatic.  
"It... hurts!" I whispered through gritted teeths. They had a confused look, but the GiW took our attention in explaining.  
"We know, it smells terrible. It's the smell of a blood blossom mix. Any ghost confronted with it will suffer the pain though. With this we won't also get rid of the bad ghosts, we will also force Phantom out of his hiding place and capture him! To achieve this we need to place in every building, public as private, a box of our special blood blossom mix! Starting? Today!"

We walked away as far as we could from the mayor's place, realizing while we were occupied, they had already placed more blossom boxes.  
"What now guys?" Tucker asked. I shook my head exhausted.  
"I'm going home. To the only place not invaded by those boxes. Yet." I moaned.  
"Are you sure?" Sam asked.  
"Why not? I need some time to myself before I can't live without this horrible pain 24/7."  
I growled all my goodbyes to them and we separated. When I spotted my home from a great distance, I realized I was already to late.  
"Mister, everyone needs to install these boxes inside their house. It's a safety order from the government." A minion of the GiW tried to convince my stubborn Dad.  
"And I don't give a shit! I don't want this smelly poop in my house!" Dad bellowed back.  
I sighed annoyed. I was just too tired and wanted sleep. Another thing I didn't tell my friends, the cold in my heart reappeared. Not that it ever had left after the Blueville incident, it just wasn't that strong that it would bother me.  
But now it strongly mixed with blood blossom pain and I could hardly keep myself normal.  
"I am the greatest ghosthunter of Amity Park! No ghost would ever dare to enter this house!" Dad argued over the aspect Phantom could flee and hide inside Fenton Works. My father noticed me eventually.  
"Hey Danny! Can you believe-"  
"Yes I can." I answered wearily, not even trying to hide my annoyance.  
"Just let the man do his job." I suggested and disappeared in my room. Letting myself fall on the bed I closed my eyes and immediately fell asleep.

I woke up normally. No pain, nothing.  
"Wow... did Dad actually win this round?"  
I stood up having a clear look at my room.  
"What the..." My eyes widened in pure shock. My room was completely covered in white blue frost. No exceptions, my wall, my desk, my carpet and my window.  
My room was frozen. Plus the air. Little red ice crystals were floating in the air.  
"What happened here?" I jumped up and ran out of my room, but fell to the ground before reaching the stairs. The pain returned with the smell. Great, our house got invaded, too. A while later the cold also returned to my core.  
I needed to get my full strength together to get the stairs down. That was when I decided I couldn't stay here. I had to leave Amity Park.  
"Hey Sam, your house poisoned, too?" I spoke into my mobile.  
"No." I heard her saying sarcastically while keeping her nose shut.  
"Alright, you and Tucker need to come to my house. We need to discuss something."  
"Ok." She agreed. I hung up and typed in Tucker's number.

"I will leave Amity Park." I confessed.  
Their eyes widened in shock.  
"What?!"  
"You can't just give up dude!" Tucker shouted. I sighed and led them into my frozen room.  
"Even if I manage to hide the pain, I can't hide my powers." I gestured at my walls.  
"Now that you mention this, standing next to you gives me the chills. It's like the time when you first got your ice powers." Tucker noticed.  
"Maybe you need to go to the ice zone." Sam suggested. I shrugged my shoulders. Maybe.  
"But how you will you deal with your disappearance. It could make your secret identity obvious." Sam warned me carefully.  
"That's why I created a plan."

"Hey Mom, Dad?" They were occupied with a new invention, like always.  
"Can I talk to you 'bout the internship thingy?"  
They didn't even turn their heads into my direction nor did they question my never mentioned internship.  
"Of course sweetie." Mom chirped distracted.  
"Well it is kinda far away from Amity Park so I have to move away, for like three weeks." I spoke, fumbling my fingers nervously.  
"Ok baby."  
No worries? Not exactly like I expected, but the best result I could hope for. Again they were way too occupied with their work. I was already heading to my room when my mom realized the meaning of my words.  
"Wait a minute... What internship? You never told us about this?" She turned around angry, but I already had prepared a plan B. Well it was plan A formerly, didn't know this conversation could go this smooth like seconds ago.  
"Seriously mom? I told you a hundred times about this! Don't you ever listen to me!" I accused her, feeling pretty guilty. Though for different cases I was telling the truth. So often they never listened to me because of their so important work, now this was payback time.  
"We always listen to you!" She made her position clear. Now Dad turned around. He was still pissed of the blossom box and had a peg on his nose.  
"Yeah? Like now for example?" I raised one eyebrow. Mom shook her head and sighed in defeat.  
"Oh I'm sorry baby. Sometimes we get really caught up with our work." Everything was going on plan.  
"It's ok, I understand. But I can't miss this internship. It's very important for my future and I can't just dismiss two days before the start."  
"What is this internship even about?" My Dad questioned. I didn't expect a clever question of him. Ok Danny, make it realistic.  
"About astronauts." My Dad made a grimace, like I had guessed. He was still hoping for me to become a ghost hunter, that's why he hated my dream about becoming an astronaut.  
"But maybe I realize I don't even want to become an astronaut there. Like I said, this internship is pretty life changing to me."  
My father nodded.  
"Sounds like a deal to me." Saying, my father agreed.  
"But where did you plan to stay?" Mom asked me. I was already waiting to answer that.  
"Plas- Uncle Vlad's house is nearby. I called him and he is okay with letting me stay in his home for three weeks."  
My Mom wasn't so happy to hear about that, but my father filled the enthusiasm of two people.  
"Very good idea! Vladdy will do this! Don't worry Honey." He barked excitedly.  
Mom sighed.  
"If you say so..."  
Now my final trump card, beating the subject school.  
"But now you didn't assign me for the school drop..." I made a sad face.  
"So I have to go for one week to school before summer holidays, just to miss my internship." I sighed sadly. It was saying: I'm disappointed in my parents. Like I said, I felt very very guilty doing this to them. But the pain in my body from the blossom box and the slowly freezing air kept me going on.  
"Aww, don't worry about it sweetie. We will do that for you honey, I promise. You just go to your internship and care about your future. We'll cover the rest." My mother promised me and took me into a tight hug. I secretly groaned into the pain and thanked them behind gritted teeth. I went up the stairs back to my room, but found Jazz standing at the top of it.  
"Ow... you heard everything, didn't you?" I asked embarrassed and caught, regarding her mean look.  
"Why did you lie to them?" She whispered angrily but sad at the same time. I grabbed her arm and pushed her into my room.  
"Hey Danny, how did it goOW hi Jazz, how you're doing?" Tucker formed a new sentence in a much higher voice.  
"Don't worry, she's into this." I explained wearliy. Jazz widened her eyes.  
"Danny! What did you do to your room!?" She exclaimed shocked and froze. Sam and Tucker had wrapped some of my clothes around them.  
"Exactly, that is one reason to go. The blood blossom makes my powers go crazy, I can't control them anymore!" Well, actually since the Blueville incident, but who cares. This isn't important right now.  
I noticed thanks to the ice the horrible smell couldn't reach my room, so the pain finally wore off.  
"But I thought it doesn't affect you in your human form?" Sam pointed out, shivering under the layers of clothes.  
"Me too... But they said they mixed it with something, that must be the clue." I confirmed.  
"And that is where we attack! The blossom mix has to be replaced every week. If we can stop the production, you can return home." Jazz pounded her fist into her open palm. I looked thankfully at Jazz for her support.  
"They'll find something new..." I returned back.  
"We will, too." She laid a hand on my shoulder.  
I smiled.  
"Thank you guys. Thanks for supporting me."

"You sure we shouldn't accompany you to Vlad?"  
"Don't worry, Mom. Since I have a free day I'll bring Danny there." Jazz promised. Mom hugged Jazz.  
"Thanks sweetie. Have a good trip!" She waved to me into the car. I was forcing up a smile and waved back. The pain was outside even worse. After a while Jazz sat next to me and put her key in the hole.  
"Ready little brother?"  
"Ready as I'll ever be."  
Later we reached the end of Amity Park. I noticed something strongly red, but wasn't that concerned. Neither was Jazz.  
We drove right into the red fog. It all happened in a few seconds.  
Suddenly I widened my eyes and started to scream out in horrible pain. I couldn't move forward and was squeezed into my seat. In my panic I realized I couldn't cross the red fog and would be crushed any millisecond. I turned intangible and fell to the harsh ground. Clenching my arms onto my chest I screamed loudly in pain. Tears were streaming down my eyes and I had troubles breathing.  
When my vision cleared and the pain died out, I managed to sit up. Jazz was sitting next to me, but was keeping a safe distance.  
"Danny! You're alright?" She pressed behind gritted teeth.  
"Jazz? What's wrong?" I asked immediately. She was hiding her hands in her armpits.  
"Jazz?" I stood up, but was sliding back to the ground. What the? I looked down at the frozen ground. My eyes widened in shock.  
"Jazz?!" I crawled to her and took her hands. She whined from pain. Her hands were in a deep blue.  
"Danny I'm fine... It's just a-"  
I stumbled back, terrified of my own doing.  
"I'm sorry..." I gasped, not wanting to believe the truth. I stumbled over my own foot and fell on my butt.  
"Danny..." Jazz reached her hand out to me. A deep blue frozen hand. Although she could never reach me due to the distance I created, I backed away, terrified. I crawled up and turned around running away.  
"Danny!" My big sister screamed. I looked back, one last time, to remember myself why I had to leave. A tear left my eye and I flew away.

The girl looked at her phone. She was waiting for the phone call for a while now.  
"Come on..." She whispered, hitting uselessly on her phone. Accidentally she hit the phone button. At first she wanted to stop the call panically, but then she realized, this was only a shortcut. It took some time before Jazz answered.  
"Sam?"  
"Where's Danny?" She asked without greeting.  
"Is he safely at Vlad's?" Jazz sighed. "He can't cross the border, he flew away." Sam already imagined the worst.  
"Tell me where you are. I'll get to you."

Jazz sat on the ground, trying to warm her hands.  
"What happened?" Tucker ran to Jazz and sat beside her, putting both hands on her shoulder. Sam looked at the ground where frost was circled.  
"Danny froze your hands?" She guessed sadly.  
"Not on purpose!" Jazz assured her.  
"It happened everything pretty fast. I just drove through the border. I heard him screaming like hell and then he was gone. When I ran out he laid there, curled up and crying in pain. I touched him, all of a sudden my hands started to hurt. When I searched for distance, the ground around him froze wider. He didn't even know what was happening." Jazz explained exhausted, tears threatening to spill.  
"He was terrified and flew off."  
Sam and Tucker shared a look. Shit was getting real.

I listened to the beeping.  
"Hello?"  
"Hey Vlad." I spoke into the speaker.  
"Daniel? What a surprise! What brings you to call me?" Vlad laughed surprised. I had no time for this procedure.  
"I need your help." I could imagine Frootloop's dumbfounded face.  
"You need wha- Are you kidding me?" He asked in a serious tone.  
"Not that I would be aware of." I shared his mood.  
"What problem?"  
"A problem between halfas." He didn't answer, so I assumed he was nodding.  
"Amity Park has been poisoned with a mix of blood blossom, also capable of hurting me in my human form. I can no longer stay here."  
"So you seek refugee in my house." It was more of a realization than a question.  
"Kinda." I answered laconic.  
"What does that mean? Kinda?" He said the last word in a mocking way, like parents always do.  
"I can't actually leave Amity Park. They made a barrier."  
"Shall I pick you up?" I was confused by his answer.  
"I can't cross the border, so neither can you."  
"Then what do you need my help for?" He growled annoyed.  
"Whenever my parents call for me, tell them I'm at your house. If they ask if they can speak to me find an excuse. Just, make them believe I'm at your house going to an internship." I finished my pleading.  
"And why should I help you?" For a while there was only silence. Why did I ask Vlad for help?  
"I don't know." I told him the truth. He didn't answer, so I hung up the call, hoping everything would go fine.  
I sat myself down in the dark alleyway. I needed some rest which is why I closed my eyes. The blossom pain wore off, but in reality it was frozen in the air with my other surroundings. I thought of fleeing to the ghost zone, but there was no way I could reach my parent's portal. The time I flew away from my sister was the most painful time, till I fell down and went unconscious. Turning into Phantom would be like living in the unfinished ghost portal that never would stopp electrocuting me.  
Yes I was scared. I couldn't use my powers, I lost my home but am still in pain and my identity will be screwed up for good. Now, in the time of loneliness, where no one could see my weakness, I started crying. I cried like a baby.  
I thought it couldn't get worse. But that time, I didn't even know the meaning of loneliness.


	8. VIII.

I woke up when my ghost sense showed up.  
"Oh no..." I whispered. I pushed myself up running towards the direction.   
"I'm going gho-Ugh!" I fell on my knees.   
"Screw these blossom boxes..." I panted. Then I saw ectoplasm being shot around. I crawled to the wall and pressed myself against it, taking deep breaths. A ghost ran away in panic followed by the GiW.   
"No!" I screamed in shock.   
"I'm going ghost!" I yelled again, but this time it worked. My fingers digged into my chest. The pain intensified strongly by becoming a ghost. I couldn't imagine how the full ghost out there had to be feeling.   
A good motivation for me to fly up. I flew fast until I spotted the GiW. Some people noticed me, but I didn't care. I cared for the ghost down there, whining out of pain, confused and alone. I knew how this felt.   
I finally reached the ghost, so the GiW must have spotted me.   
"kion vi...faras ĉi tie?" I asked Wulff what he was doing here. He couldn't answer in his state, so I lifted him up and brought him into a safer place. I returned to the place where I slept the last night and therefore was frozen. We both sighed due the pain release.   
"Mi forkuris de Walker." He answered me that he fled from Walker.   
"Again? Denove?" I repeated.   
Wulff nodded.   
"Vi bezonas foriri." I told him to leave. "Ĝi ne estas sekura ĉi tie." He needs to leave, no ghost is safe in Amity Park. "Now we've got you Phantom. Finally covering up for your ghost friends?"   
I stood in front of Wulff to protect him, but they also came from the other direction.   
"He's a nice ghost, he doesn't harm anyone, just like me!" I yelled back.  
Agent K laughed.   
"Tell that your ghost friends."   
I'm both, ghost and human, but am neither accepted in any of these worlds. Where are the odds?   
"Why can't you just trust me? We could talk about this than blindly hurting someone!" I suggested peacefully.  
"With ectoscum, you don't talk. You aim at it." He did it and he shot it. Right in time I flew up, Wulff right behind me, so the bullet hurt his own allies.   
We flew out of the alleyway but crashed not far away. The pain was getting to strong.  
"Kio estas tiu doloro?" Wulff asked me about the pain.   
"Blood blossom... Sangofloroj..." I answered behind gritted teeth. The GiW circled us, placing real blood blossoms around us. They kinda imprisoned us, we couldn't really fly, since the pain got more serious now and we couldn't cross the blossom barrier.   
"We've got you Phantom! Give up!" The shouted, already tasting victory. I had to think fast.   
"ĉu vi havas viajn ungegojn?" I asked Wulff. Not a second later he projected his claws.   
"Fine." I said.   
"Malfermi portalon" I demanded right afterwards.   
"Sed..." Wulf questioned me, but opened a portal anyway. I shot out rays of ectoplasm to protect us in the meantime. Wulff looked at me.   
"Ĉu vi venas?" He asked me to accompany him. I shook my head and placed a hand on my heart.   
"Jen estas mia hejmo. Mi bezonas batali por ĝi." I told him that this is my home and I need to fight for it. Wulff hesitated, but nodded in understanding.   
"Mi komprenas." Internally I cursed myself for my stupidity. Wulff was about to disappear when something hit me hard in the belly and send us both flying out of the circle. The portal closed.   
"Ugh... ah..." I was laying curled up from the pain. Flying through blood blossom was even painfuller than the hit itself.   
"The catch of the day. Two ghosts easily caught. One of them, the infamous Danny Phantom." I opened one eye to see Agent K over me. He put something around my neck... a collar? I had no power to move. I gained sight to my side, seeing it done on Wulff the same way.   
I tried to struggle. To scream for help. To shoot ice or ectoplasm, but my body was numb. I was thrown over a shoulder, helplessly, being carried to somewhere I couldn't see. The hand holding me tightly on my back moved down until it reached my butt.   
A tear fell down. I couldn't believe it. Caught a minute ago and already being molested.   
Like trash I was thrown into a van, landing with my head first. The van was shaking when Wulf fell into it right after me.   
"Krei... portalon" I whispered to Wulf. We both needed to flee. And from the ghost zone I could run away to Vlad's portal. With the last strength he had left Wulf opened the portal. We both tried to crawl in. Wulf was already in, one paw outside to help me in. I stretched out to reach for his hand, but suddenly something smashed the van. It send me out flying. I fell on the dirty ground, head into muddy water.   
"Eat this!" I heard people screaming and shooting with ecto guns.   
"Wulff...!" I called up to the van, when something grabbed my waist.   
"No!" I cried, finally having the power to kick around me, even if not effective enough.   
Again I was thrown over a shoulder, hand on my back. I kicked and hit the person holding me, demanding to let me go. Anytime soon I must have lost my consciousness.

I woke up in shock.   
I was laying in a slightly dark room. I looked down at me. I wasn't transformed anymore, so had the collar disappeared. There was no grey steel van. I was sitting on wood, dark wood. The wooden cabinet was moving, but not like a car, more like a carriage.   
Then I noticed something. No pain. No blood blossom!   
So I was at my full strength. I transformed quickly and kicked the door open, ectoplasm loaded up in my right hand. Ready to burn some flesh.  
"Whoa shit dude!"   
"Stop! Stooop!"   
"Kyaa!"   
"Hey we're friends!"   
I lowered my hand and looked confused at the group who 'kidnapped' me.   
"You are students?" I said, pretending not to know them. Of course I knew all of them. They were my friends, my sister, but most surprisingly Dash, Kwan, Star, Paulina and Valerie aka the Red Huntress. By the way, she had her gun already in her hand, hiding it behind her back though.   
"What are you doing?" I asked bluntly.  
"We saved you man." Dash said, arms raised up in surrender.  
"The GiW almost captured you." Kwan, his best friend I assume, added.   
"But how did you got out the barrier? And why are we riding in a carriage?" I kept on asking. Maybe I had laid down my attack, but not my guard.   
"The nerds could hold the barrier of for a while." The boys explained. So that's where the other half of the class was.   
"And we are riding a carriage because horses are beautiful and cute!" Paulina exclaimed excitedly.   
"Actually we took them as a disguise. The GiW are still looking for Jazz's car." Sam explained in a lower, more sane voice. I was happy to see her again. I wanted to hug her so badly, but that would screw up my secret identity, which somehow, stayed secret. At least they didn't act like they knew who I really was.   
I laid down my guard and sat down to the group. It was silent and somehow I had a feeling they expected something from me. Pretty awkward situation for both sides.   
"Well... uhm, thank you guys, you did a lot for me." I confessed, scratching my white hair.  
"Where are you going?" Jazz questioned, but I wasn't even moving. She clearly should study psychology, that was her strength.   
"I don't want to endanger you guys. Since the Blueville incident I'm somehow declared to a criminal and helping a criminal is already bad enough. Anyway, you can't drop out of school because of me." I finished my presentation about the topic _Leave_ _me_ _alone_ _,_ but they didn't seem quite impressed.   
"No dude, you clearly need our help!" Dash realized.  
"Anyway, we already helped a criminal. Might as well finish this." Sam explained with a sly grin on her face.  
"And missing the boring week before holidays is the best thing ever could happen!" Star giggled.   
"After all, we have a plan where to stay and figure out how to solve this mess." My sister said. My eyes were getting a little bit wet.   
"Wow, guys... I don't know what to say. Thank you, thank you very much. I don't know how I could ever pay you back." I sniffed, relieved I wasn't left alone in this mess. Obviously I knew I had to solve it by myself, but it felt good to have company for the time in between.  
"You already did, multiple times." Sam said with a warming smile.  
"With every time you saved us, demanding nothing at all." Jazz added.   
"Maybe we do demand a little bit." I heard Tucker behind me. Sam hit my best friend's arm, he cursed under his breath. But when I looked at Tucker, he was grinning.  
"How about a tiny bit trust?"

The stars were shining very bright. Much better to see from the forest than from Amity Park. And the silence...hmm! I really needed that!   
I was sitting on the roof of the cabin and had a pretty view over the forest and the sky. And the best part?   
No pain at all! Nothing from the blood blossoms and no ice in my heart. I was so exhausted of the last days, it really felt good to actually calm down.   
My sensitive hearing detected a sound. Like some idiot climbing up the house. Silently I transformed into a ghost. I couldn't know who wanted to share a word with me. After a while I saw a tall boy climbing up the roof. He swung over and panted. I watched him doing that without commenting.   
"Phew... Seriously, you've got some muscles dude... How did you manage to get up here so easily?" Dash asked me, still exhausted. I raised one eyebrow because I wasn't sure if this was irony.   
"I'm a ghost. I can phase through the roof." Embarrassed silence pointed out, that hadn't been irony.   
"Right..." Dash murmured, scratching his head.   
Now what? Do I need to start a talk with him? Dash is one of the last people I would want to talk right now. Actually, I wished never talking to him at all.   
"So, Dash, right? What brings you up to the roof, deep in the night?" I asked politely. Dash seemed aroused by the fact I remembered him. Please, how couldn't I? He always made me remember him when he pushed me inside the locker.   
"I, well, actually I... I wanted to talk with you... if you don't mind?" I really had to pull myself together to act nice and neutral.   
"May I sit next to you?"   
"Sure."   
For a moment we both looked at the sky. If this wasn't akward I would've enjoyed the moment of silence.   
"Beautiful stars tonight?" He asked and I cursed him for speaking.   
"You wanted to talk with me?" I changed the subject immediately. Let's get this over with when he already started blabbering bullshit.   
"Yeah, right." He stuttered and rubbed his arm.  
Why was Dash so nervous? I never saw him acting like that to anyone, especially not towards me.   
"Well, I admire you and obviously I'm not the only one, so you must be thinking what the hell does he want from me." Dash started his presentation.   
"I actually do." I admitted making Dash laugh. I try to be honest and am considered as a man with humor. Seriously.   
"Ok, let's get this over with." He said bravely. Finally you are speaking my language.   
"I admire you really badly and I want to be like you because you changed my life!"   
It was silent.  
I needed time to process what my school bully just told me.   
"You- What?"   
Dash sighed.   
"I just wish I could be a superhero, too. When I saved this Fenton guy, I thought I was doing that to be called a hero. To call myself a superhero. But somehow, after I bragged to everyone and even told you, I don't know. I wasn't satisfied."   
I didn't know what to say. I wasn't even sure if this was the Baxter I knew or a trap.   
"Saving Fenton didn't make me a hero. Why? Is it because of that unsatisfied feeling you keep on saving the city over and over again? Are you addicted to that?"   
"Sorry, I didn't expect a talk like that." I admitted honestly.   
"Don't worry, take your time." Dash said. Obviously I wouldn't take my time. Only made things much more uncomfortable.  
"First of all, no I'm not addicted to a superhero feeling. Actually I never even thought about that, until you mentioned it right now." I declared.  
Dash's eyebrows went up.   
"Really? But then... why?"   
I thought about it for a while. How could I tell him the truth without revealing too much of my secret?  
"Uhm, I kinda don't like the feeling when something bad happens and I know I could've prevented this with my power. And when time flied by, I somehow felt responsible for the city. That's the ghost obsession thing you may have already heard of. Every ghost has an obsession, which keeps them in their spirit 'alive'. Like the hunting ghost Skulker, he needs to hunt. So it's my obsession to keep Amity Park safe. It didn't matter that no one appreciated my help, because I would do it anyway. I don't know what went into my head in Blueville. I should've kept my calmness." I told my bully. Amazing with whom you could do a real talk, even if a little unwillingly.   
Dash shook his head.   
"No! It was obvious that this day would come. If you wouldn't have burst out in Blueville, you would've some other day."   
I nodded. Maybe he was right.   
"Still, I wish I could be like you." Dash murmured, looking into the distance.   
"Why? From what I know you are a popular A-Lister and you have everything you want." I pointed out.   
"Well, yeah but... I want to be like you." He whined like the spoiled brat he is.  
"Dead?" I grinned watching Dash's shocked reaction.   
"Of course not! I mean your character. You are nice to everyone, cool, popular, athletic and utterly brave. Hmm... I wish I could be that brave." Dash dreamed like a little kid dreams of becoming a fireman. I just had to giggle.   
"What does brave mean to you?" I asked, honestly curious. Dash didn't have to think a lot.   
"That you fear nothing and fight anything!" He explained roughly, probably thinking of one of the typical comic book heroes.   
Just like I thought.   
"I'm not fearless." Dash widened his eyes and screamed Whaaat? Stupid bully, everyone fears something. Fun Fact, I was scared of heights for a time. Then the accident happened and I had times I floated up uncontrollably, up to a tree actually. Sam and Tucker had to get me down, but the time there floating kept hardening me.   
"Yeah, I always fear to loose the ones I love and the innocents. I fear that one day I'll loose to my enemies or get captured and tortured by the GIW. I have a lot of fears actually. I'm a mess." I realized suddenly. Dash was rethinking his life.   
"So you want to say there are no brave people?" He asked sorrowful.  
"There are a lot of brave people, more than you think actually. Being brave doesn't mean to storm fearless into action. It means despite of the fear you are willing to do the right thing and storm into action." I explained. Maybe that's why Lancer always sticked to his beloved monologues. It felt awfully cool to be this wise.  
"That is your definition of being brave?" He looked me deep in the eyes. And then I realized, Dash isn't that bad. I've always seen him when he was all strong and confident. Although in reality he was anything but that. He had also his weak sides, sides he didn't want anyone to see. That's why he put up a mask, as Dash Baxter, popular A Lister and Bully.   
"Yes. And that's why I see you as a brave kid. You weren't completely fearless when you saved the Fenton kid, were you?" I mentioned with a sly grin.  
Dash scratched his head.   
"Me? Fear? Ha ha! Of the ghost? Pff, naaah." He was grinning nervously.   
"You don't have to put up a mask to hide your weakness." I recommended.   
"People will like you for who you are. Trust me." I advised calmly.  
Dash nodded.   
"Thank you Danny." He said.   
This got me chills running down my spine. Dash never called me Danny in real life. Maybe he never will, but hearing that in my ghost form still made me happy. Is that what we call character development going on with Dash?   
"You know what? I think, if we would've known us in real life, we could've been real friends." Dash suddenly mused. My mood went down.   
"Maybe." I said with a disappearing smile.   
"I'll go to sleep." I whispered disappointed.  
"Yeah, yeah. Good idea." While sitting I phased through the roof back into my room. I didn't care how Dash would get down. I just cared about closing the door real tight, so no one would get in. And I could be Danny Fenton again. The normal useless human boy.


	9. Author's note

To be honest, I wasn't planning to do this (especially not so soon), but I realized there are some things I need to point out and apologize for.

Beginning with the classics:   
Nothing belongs to me, only the idea of the story and the bad writing is mine.   
The pictures and gifs are not mine! I apologize to anyone who drew these amazing pictures, in case they're not fine with me using them. I just think they give the story a little something :)  
Another classic:   
I apologize for all kinds of mistake I did in this wonderful language. Since English isn't my native language, I do have sometimes troubles to keep my original language and English apart. So I'm very very sorry for my mistakes.

Now let's get to the connection with my story. I also have to apologize for the Esperanto I used in the last chapter. I know, never trust Google translator on that. But to be honest, I didn't even know Esperanto was a real life language till that chapter. And it's kinda hard to find good translations for these sentences, so I thought Google will do it. If you actually speak Esperanto and know how to help me, write the correct translations in the comment section below. I will hopefully correct them.

Now, to anyone who wondered where the heck we are in the timeline of the series. Congratulations! Because I'm still wondering. I have absolutely no clue after what episode my story starts. After some time I realized, I mixed some things together. So I'll just point the facts out. (Sorry when they're too obvious)  
*Jazz knows about Danny's secret  
*Vlad lives still in Wisconsin, and is not the mayor of Amity Park  
*The _Dan Phantom_ future happened  
*No one knows about Danny's secret nor that Phantom is actually a halfa  
*Reality gauntlet happened, oh boy, it's all too obvious  
I kind of mentioned everything in the story. But if there are still questions left, write them in the comments. I will probably not read them. Kidding, I'll give my best *cough* if there are even readers *cough*

Oh and some of you might have noticed that Dash is a little bit different than in the original series, a bit OOC. I give him a few more appearances, because I actually like the character of him. It's sad that in the series he's only portrayed as the big dumb bully, but I think he has a big character development to work on. Here goes my thanks to Thomas Astruc, who inspired me in his series Miraculous Ladybug.   
To sum this up: Don't worry, no guys love (I actually like that, but that's definitely the wrong couple) and no Danny x Dash! If you're looking for romance at all, this fan fiction is wrong for you. Romance won't be the star of this story, I want to concentrate on the storyline itself. Sure, it will be a fact guarding Danny through his life, since he's on puberty, but it won't be to clingy.

I guess that's it for now, so... keep enjoying the story.


	10. IX.

"So this is the plan. Tucker will hack into the digital devices of the GiW. Paulina and Star will distract the guards. Dash and Kwan help Danny get in. Danny destroys the headquarters with his ghostly wail. Sam and I will get everyone back. What do you think?" Jazz proudly presented her plan. That wasn't her first one though. Everyone made a great expression, but I could point out hundreds of mistakes.   
"First of all, destroying the headquarters won't destroy the organization. They will easily rebuild themselves." I sighed frustrated.  
"And again. I don't need nobody to help me, it's rather possible I hurt Dash and Kwan with my ghostly wail. And since Paulina and Star are also considered as missing they will only get captured. This plan won't work." I confirmed.  
Jazz groaned, the others were silent. No one but Sam and Jazz were bringing up plans I always kept rejecting. The others were enjoying their summer holidays in a lonely cabin in the woods for almost two weeks.   
"Well since you are so good at it, why don't you make a plan yourself!" My sister started arguing with me.   
"I already did-" "-and we kindly rejected it." Sam ended my sentence.   
"Still my plan could've worked." I grumbled annoyed.   
"Sending you out alone talking with the GiW? Dude, you will get yourself killed!" Tucker mixed in.   
"But no other plan will work! And I'd rather handle this by my own to keep you safe than to sit here in this cabin forever!"   
No one wanted to argue over that, so I stood up and went out, telling them I'd take a walk. I needed time to think.   
"Danny wait!" Sam rushed out of the house, alone. Thank god.   
"Why are you trying to push us away?" She blurted out immediately.  
I turned around.   
"I'm not..." I mumbled unconvinced.   
"Yes you are Danny. And that really pisses me off, you know that!" She growled annoyed. I apologized, because she was obviously right.   
"I just want to keep you safe. It's my fault."   
We walked further away from the cabin and I thought it was safe enough, so I changed back to Danny Fenton.   
"If you want to say because you're half ghost, then you have to count me in. I'm the one to blame that you are half part ghost." She spoke all of a sudden. I laughed.   
"Yeah and I couldn't be more grateful for that." I replied honestly. I heard her mumbling an unconvinced _yeah yeah_ , which made me shout out _no kidding_.   
"I won't forgive myself if the story will go out bad, you understand Danny? I want- We want to protect you as much as we can. I don't want you to rush out on your own and take those guys out alone." Sam confessed. Did I just spot tears in her eyes?   
"When you disappeared, and then days later were captured by the GIW..." I heard her sobbing and took her quickly into a hug.   
"I thought I'd loose you forever..." She cried onto my shoulder. My heart stopped beating, my lungs didn't accept air anymore. We should head back home since it grew dark, but I just wished to stay here with her.   
"I'm so sorry Sam, I'm so sorry. It was so selfish of me. I'm sorry." I didn't even know who was holding on to who. The thought of letting Sam go made my feet feel wobbly. I wanted to protect her so badly.   
That was when I made a decision.   
"We need to stop this mess..." She whispered exhausted. I laughed lightly and we slowly let go of each other.  
"Tell me about it."   
Together we walked off deeper into the forest.   
"Do you think it'll be ever like before? A normal life?" She asked after a while of silence. I was glad it was finally getting dark. She clenched onto my arm and we walked like a couple. If it was bright she could easily notice me right there blushing.   
"That was a normal life?" I asked back in a mocking way. She hit me lightly in the arm, but the surprise made me squeak. What a hero, Sam laughed and I kept pouting.   
"No, I mean if we'll ever get back to where we've been before?" She repeated. I enjoyed the thought of that with a warm smile.  
"I hope so." Yes, I did wish to get back there.   
"Tell me." She demanded.   
"Tell you what?" I questioned confused.   
"About the time, before the Blueville incident."   
We found a dead tree where we could sit on. It had a perfect view to the lake.   
"So pretty..." She mumbled slowly laying herself onto my arm. I sighed happily. The time before Blueville.   
"We would always meet at one of our lockers." I started, already getting Flashbacks. Of course I chose my favourite day. Thursday, a day full of lessons with my friends.   
"We would chat about ghosts or other big events that had happened. Well until Dash would show up, throwing me into a locker... You always would try to get me out of it while Tucker would keep a look out. In the end I would just phase through it, without Tucker's ok." I remembered nostalgic.  
When she giggled my heart skipped a beat.   
"Then Mr. Lancer would torture us again in one of his favourite classes." We looked at each other.   
"English!" We shouted out together and laughed.   
"After that we could finally have astrophysics. I would be so motivated still blabbering about becoming an astronaut. You and Tucker would be very annoyed."   
"Not true!" She defended herself.   
"Keep telling that yourself, I know what's going on there." I laughed, she joined in. When was the last time I was so happy?  
"And then?" She asked, cuddling onto my arm, almost making my heart skip a beat again.   
"Then? Well then we would walk to the Nasty Burgers. Tucker would be dreaming about meat, while you would always start arguing about how bad it is to eat meat."   
She giggled.   
"So not true."   
I grinned, because we both knew this was so true.   
"I would just listen to you both. But if you'd ever ask me, I was always on Tucker's side, because I also like meat." Sam mumbled a traitor, which made me laugh again.   
"At lunch we would talk about everything. Maybe we'd also find a movie to go to the cinema. After some time my ghost sense would go on. Then we'd crawl under the table and I'd phase us out the building. Together we would chase of the ghost." I continued my wonderful little story called life.  
"Which ghost?" She asked. I looked at her, she was so calmed down.   
"The box ghost?" I asked grinning.   
"No!" She laughed hitting me.   
"We would've caught him in no time." She claimed proudly.  
"True." I admitted while giggling.   
"So Skulker is okay?"   
She nodded.   
"So Skulker it is. You know how he would always yell _Today_ _is_ _the_ _day_ _I'll_ _hunt_ _you_ _down, ghost_ _child_ _!_ " I imitated the hunting ghost in a deep dumb voice.   
" _And_ _then_ _I'll_ _rip_ _of_ _your_ _skin_ _and_ _hang_ _it_ _on_ _the_ _wall so_ _my_ _girlfriend_ _Ember_ _will_ _be_ _impressed_ _!_ You know, I'm still surprised he has a girlfriend."   
Sam laughed out pretty loud and I just had to join in.   
"Anyway, we would always catch him in the Fenton Thermos. Crazy that my parent's inventions are always so useful."   
"Unlike them?" She added. I somehow had to laugh. All respect to my parents, I love them, but they truly are crappy ghost hunters.   
"Then we would hang out for the rest of the day, I don't know, play video games, hunt other ghosts,..."   
"Check out the ghost zone." She suggested. I added that on my list.   
"A normal day, right?" I exclaimed. We sat there, watched the big bright moon, in the sky as in the water.   
"Hey Sam? Remember our dance?" She looked up.   
"You mean our first and last one?" She remembered.  
I grinned.   
"No, the second one." Now she was confused. I grabbed her hand.   
"When this mess is over you will always look back to this dance." I promised, reviving the hope of a wonderful life after this.  
While walking I transformed into Phantom and started floating. Sam stumbled nervously, I still held her hand and dragged her to the lake.   
"Wait Danny, it's a bit too cold to swim." She said nervously, which made my grin wider. For my part, I had already reached the lake. I was floating over it, now getting Sam on board. She squeaked when the last meters were done and she stumbled into the lake. Better said onto the lake. She looked surprised down.   
"Wow... Danny we're floating." She mumbled happily surprised.   
I started humming a song, a song we both knew pretty well. She started to join my humming, which was my cue. I made a step backwards, guiding Sam with me. She was so surprised to stop the humming, but after a while when she got comfortable with dancing on the water, she sang the song with me.

 _I still_ _believe_ _in_ _your_ _eyes_  
 _I just_ _don't_ _care_ _what_ _you've_ _done_ _in_ _your_ _live_  
 _Baby, I always_ _be_ _here_ _by_ _your_ _side_  
 _Don't_ _leave_ _me_ _waiting_ _too_ _long,_ _please_ _come_ _by_  
 _I-I-I-I still_ _believe_ _in_ _your_ _eyes_  
 _There_ _is_ _no choice I_ _belong_ _to_ _your_ _life_  
 _Because, I will have_ _to_ _love_ _you_ _someday_  
 _You'll_ _be_ _my_ _Baby_ _and_ _will fly away_  
 _And_ _I'll fly_ _with_ _you_ _-_ _uhh_ _-_ _uhh_  
 _I'll fly_ _with_ _you_ _-_ _uhh_ _-_ _uhh_  
 _I'll fly_ _with_ _you_ _-_ _uhh_ _-_ _uhh_

 _Every_ _Day_ _and_ _every_ _Night_  
 _I always_ _dream_ _that_ _you_ _are_ _by_ _my_ _side_  
 _Oh Baby,_ _every_ _Day_ _and_ _every_ _Night_  
 _Will I_ _say_ _everything_ _is_ _gonna_ _be_ _alright_  
 _And_ _I'll fly_ _with_ _you_ _-_ _uuh_ _-_ _uuh_  
 _I'll fly_ _with_ _you_ _-_ _uhh_ _-_ _uhh_  
 _I'll fly_ _with_ _you_ _-_ _uhh_ _-_ _uhh_  
 _(I'll fly_ _with_ _you_ _)_  
 _And_ _I'll fly_ _with_ _you_ _-_ _uhh_ _-_ _uhh_

 _I'll fly_ _with_ _you_ _..._

She closed her eyes and laid her head against my chest. Our steps became smaller and smaller, until we only danced on the place, arm in arm.   
I didn't know how long we actually seesawed to the rhythm. After a while she looked up. Our faces came nearer.   
Was this the moment? Would we really kiss now?   
I heard something in the forest cracking. We both stopped our actions and looked startled to the direction. Was someone out there? For how long?   
"Maybe we should head back..." Sam suggested wiping a strand of hair behind her ear.   
"Yeah..." We floated back to the shore. I watched how carefully one foot stepped on the water and she reminded me of a light and beautiful fairy. Never knew they were a real thing, I thought smiling.   
I landed next to her. We were on our way back when I stopped.   
"Sam, I ..." She looked expectant at me. I stepped forward to her and grabbed both hands.   
"Danny?" She gasped, her violet eyes sparkling.  
I looked her in the eyes. Say it Fenton. I know you can do this.   
"Sam I... you are really important to me." Great job Fenton. Screwed it up like a pro. Sam blushed anyway, so I decided to keep it going.   
"And I can't imagine a life without you anymore." I kissed her on the forehead.   
I love you, Sam.

 _I_ _can't_ _imagine a life_ _without_ _you_ _anymore_ _..._   
The girl laid on her bed, rethinking last night. She was unbelievable happy what Danny said to her. And he also kissed her on the forehead.   
Sam touched the place and giggled. She started her day so happy and couldn't wait to see Danny.   
In front of the door she stopped dead in her tracks.  
How would she act towards him? Was he in love with her? Because she definitely knew what her feelings towards Danny said.   
So were they finally a couple now? No, he didn't say he loves her. Maybe Danny still needs some time.   
Then the normal friend talk. She opened her door and went up to Danny's room. He was the only one who had a room for himself. She shared one with Tucker and Jazz. Paulina, Star and Valerie had one so Dash and Kwan, too. They convinced them without revealing Danny was a halfa, that the ghost needs a separate room. Anyway, Sam didn't think the A listers were brave enough to share a room with a dead one.   
And Valerie? Well, if she shared a room with Danny the half dead would be soon full dead. Sam wasn't quite sure why Valerie offered her help in this case. If anything she should be against it, because Danny somehow destroyed her life. Maybe her goal was to protect her classmates, since she didn't trust the ghost? She was kinda suspicious and careful most of the time.   
Sam knocked on Danny's door, with no reaction. She opened the door to find an empty room. The bed was properly made.   
Sam's heart sank to the bottom of her body. She stormed to the bed and fell on her knees, grabbing the piece of paper.   
_Dear_ _Sam,_  
 _I just_ _thought_ _you_ _would_ _be_ _the_ _first_ _to_ _read_ _this_ _. If_ _this_ _isn't_ _the_ _case,_ _this_ _would_ _be_ _quite_ _embarrassing_ _:)_   
_Anyway,_ _by_ _now_ _you_ _must've_ _noticed_ _I'm_ _gone_ _. I am_ _unbelievable_ _sorry_ _to_ _tell_ _you_ _,_ _that_ _I'm_ _doing_ _this_ _alone_ _._ _You_ _are_ _too_ _important_ _to_ _me_ _, I_ _don't_ _want_ _to_ _lose_ _you_ _in_ _this_ _mess_ _, nor_ _do_ _I_ _want_ _to_ _lose_ _my_ _sis_ _and_ _Tuck_ _._  
 _I_ _know_ _you_ _are mad, I still_ _remember_ _your_ _words_ _last_ _night_ _._ _And_ _I_ _know_ _how_ _selfish_ _I am. I can_ _understand_ _if_ _you'll_ _never_ _forgive_ _me_ _. I'll never even_ _forgive_ _myself_ _._  
 _But_ _whatever happens in_ _the_ _outcome. I will not_ _regret_ _it_ _, because I_ _could've_ _never_ _done_ _it_ _different. I am so sorry._  
 _Love, Danny._  
Then the girl cried. She cried into the pillow Danny used for the last two weeks. She sobbed until Jazz came. She read the letter and hugged Sam. She took her in a deep embrace and promised everything would be alright. That they would find Danny and protect him.   
All lies.

\--------------------------------------------------------------

The song above is L'amour toujours, the Alex Christensen version.   
No kidding, hearing the song and writing the chap made my heart ache so much. Try out, if you're strong enough :)


	11. X.

I flew fast and determined back to Amity Park. How was I supposed to get through the barrier?  
I didn't know.  
How would I beat the GiW?  
No fucking clue.  
I was so unprepared, Jazz would probably kill me. Well get in line, first the GiW will give it a shot, literally.  
Still I could always see a picture in my head of the person I was doing this for. She risked already too much for me. When she'll return home she will not only have problems with the law, no, also with her parents. And I know of what punishments they are capable of. They made us feel it after the freak show incident.  
A sigh escaped my mouth when I spotted Amity Park. My eye lids suddenly grew heavy and I granted them a pause.  
Home sweet home.  
Though the barrier was gone. So they were already expecting me.  
I flew into my city looking around. No people in sight.  
Something was beeping. I went to have a look for the source. Therefore I passed many abandoned streets. Not even one single car was on the way home from work or the supermarket. They couldn't have just placed the whole city in quarantine, in case I'd turn up.  
Eventually I found the origin of the high pitched sound at the mayor's place, which was pretty much the center of Amity Park. I looked at the machine attached to the well. I scrutinized it with a worried expression. It showed a radar detecting a red dot.  
Maybe ectoplasm?  
Just in time I stumbled back, seeing a net thrown at the place where I was standing one second ago. It was with electrocution features, which is why the radar machine got electrocuted to destruction.  
"Finally dared to come back." I heard a deep voice. Out of all lanes and alleys Hazmat agents stormed out and circled me.  
"Give up, ghost kid." All operatives shouted at me. I was obviously outnumbered. I floated to the ground and raised my hands in the air.  
"I'm not here to fight." I admitted honestly.  
"Eat ectoplasm!" Operative K yelled and started the shooting, although I had nearly no troubles dodging the bullets.  
"But I am practically ectoplasm!" I dodged another bullet.  
"Does this make me a cannibal?" I gasped, like a bad actor. I heard roaring above my head. Right over me was a Jet pointing several guns at me.  
"Now let's see how much humor you have left..."  
With a real gasp I fell on my knees and opened a ghost shield. With every shot it shrinked an inch smaller until I had barely room in it. Before the bubble bursted I phased into the ground. It was all dark, loud and wobbly. Then it finally became silent. My head phased up to see if it was safe. My body followed.  
"Guys, I'm not your enemy." I tried again to assure them.  
"I see you can't fight us all. Care for a duell?" I saw agent K standing in front of me, ready to fight.  
"If I win, we will stop the brainless fighting and talk about the problem." I demanded with a serious voice.  
"Too bad you'll never live long enough to-"  
"Stop being a macho and rather try being mature!" I scolded him.  
"Do we have a deal?" I hissed annoyed. Agent K nodded silently. I positioned myself into a fighting pose.  
"Then game's on."

Agent K was unbelievable fast. And handy with the gun. Now, since he wasn't bound to the orders of the team, he could move freely.  
I had to admit, he held a good fight. But I didn't wanna hurt him too much. Although my lame catchphrase said _Don't_ _cry_ _in_ _the_ _hospital, I_ _warned_ _you_ _._ I needed to destroy his two guns, then he has no tools to fight with.  
"Come down, coward! Fight on the ground you flying devil!" With a crash I landed on the ground. Dust floated epically.  
"You impressed me so long. Up to level 2?" I asked with a smug grin, standing with my hands crossed over my chest.  
"Finally..." I heard him whisper.  
That made me realize, my enhanced hearing would come so in handy to an enemy who'd talk to himself. He would reveal all his attacks, thinking I couldn't hear him. The fact made me grin.  
Too bad agent K kept his plans in his head.  
He ran towards me so I ran, too. I wanted to know if he would retreat or keep running. I realized agent K was more of the stubborn type. In last second I turned intangible with a chuckle, leaving him to to run through me. Meanwhile I slowed down and turned around to shoot him in the back. A few meters away he landed. Back to my plan of not hurting him but destroy his tools...  
Operative K pushed his team mates away, who wanted to help him.  
"I'm not getting beaten by a child." He snapped angrily.  
"Well but you already were." I pointed out grinning. Again he ran, shooting ectoplasm. I also shot, but only to destroy his shots. It must've looked epic, all these green fireworks between us.  
K fought through the green fog and tried to attack me. I spinned around and easily backed away. I stomped on the ground to freeze it and make agent K slip on it. Then I phased through the ground and appeared behind operative K. As he stood up I kicked him in his back.  
Agent K stumbled but didn't let himself fall and skipped back to his feet, ready to face me.  
I slipped under his feet and my elbow hit him again in his back. For a moment operative K was like paralyzed. I hopped over his head with ease and grabbed his guns. I loaded the ectoplasm in my hands and overfilled the gun. With that I sent us both flying in the opposite direction. I landed safely on my knees, my balance secured with my right hand. Still the pressure wave made me slide away a little, my surroundings getting dusty.  
"It's over, operative K." I declared proudly. Unlike me he had landed uncomfortably on his back. Slowly he stood up and looked at me.  
"I know..." He realised his defeat and walked towards me. At least a good loser. He offered me his hand covered in the black glove and we hesitantly shook our hands.  
When I wanted to let go, he held my hand tightly. With a shocked expression I looked into a sinister one.  
Something loaded. And smashed my jaw.  
Hidden weapons, of course. The GiW were founded by the government. Obviously they were a step ahead with technical support in comparison to Mom, Dad and Vlad. I tried to bring myself up.  
"Ugh..."  
"You didn't think I would give up so easily?" Agent K exclaimed preparing for the another fight.  
"You're a bad loser, without doubt." I complained while wiping away the blood on my broken lip.  
New plan. How can I win? How can I beat him?  
We stormed again into fight. Shooting, kicking, punching, all that stuff. I took some damage, but so did he. While I worked with agility, agent K put his chances into pure force. So I hit him more often, but when he did, no kidding, that hurt badly.  
I had a plan, but it took me a while before I was desperate enough to bring it into action.  
I kicked his leg from the side to make him fall. With the open hand I hit his chest releasing my ice powers. I knew it was dangerous and I froze Squidward badly, but this was my only chance. Agent K took hundred hits and could still stand. I for myself wasn't so sure. About five hits in the upcoming fight could bring me down.  
Agent K froze in motion, but only on the outside, which meant his interns should be ok. The only thing left untouched from the ice was his head.  
Agent K was still not excepting his defeat. He kept winding and winding, but to no avail.  
"It's over." I declared finally, breathing heavily. Then I heard applause.  
"Excellent boy, excellent job out there." I turned around to face the new voice.  
Agent Alpha.  
To be honest, now I had no idea what would happen.  
"So?" He asked me. It gave me the creeps, like I hadn't paid attention in school.  
"What?" I asked dumbfounded and slightly embarrassed.  
"You have beaten one of my best agents. A deal is a deal. What do you want to clarify? We will listen." Alpha explained.  
Ok, that was actually a big surprise. The chief of the governmental organization showing respect towards me and letting me talk with them. This was a trap, I was 100% sure. But what should I do?  
"Uhm, alright, yeah. I wanted to beg you to stop this mess. I am not your enemy. I always helped you and had nothing else in mind." I stuttered unsure. Alpha nodded.  
"You say that so easily, but you once attacked the mayor. What can you say to your defence?"  
Great, unofficial court of law. They did get me into justice after all.  
"The mayor was controlled by an evil ghost who wanted to make me look bad." I replied bluntly, as if this was the most normal thing to happen. Regarding my life, it actually was.  
"Why would he wanna do that and how?" Alpha questioned me patiently, extremely calmly.  
"Phew, honestly, long story. To sum it up, while helping you humans I made myself a lot of enemies in the ghost zone. And how you ask? He overshadowed the mayor and held me in position to make it look like I was holding the mayor. Get it?" This wasn't going as smooth as I expected, but for once they were listening attentively. Was about time someone did.  
"Alright, another question. Why did we never meet any of those _good ghosts_?" Agent Alpha asked with crossed arms. He was pronouncing his last words as something impossible.  
"Hello? One of them is standing in front of you? And the others are in the ghost zone. They live there in peace, they don't need to mix in the human world." I answered offended, continuing casually.  
"So why are you?" Alpha pointed out. I gulped.  
"Why is the human world so important to you? You are already dead, you don't live here anymore. Why would it bother you if we are safe or not?"  
Everything was silent. Should I give it a shot or hide the truth behind an obsession excuse.  
"I have a good soul?" I answered more in a question. Something beeped and all weapons were on me. I flinched in shock.  
"That's not the truth." Alpha said in a serious tone.  
"A lie detector?" I noticed surprised, looking out for the sneaky machine.  
"Last chance Phantom. Tell us the truth." Alpha threatened. I eyed every agent carefully and just knew they meant it.  
My remaining options were to flee or confess. And neither of those were good. But if I would flee now, I would never be granted another chance to make things right. So I eventually gave up with a sigh.  
"I'm not fully dead."

It took some time until the group reached the car.  
"Kwan and Star, you get the carriage back." The teenagers were ordered to do so. Of course they protested at first, but there were simply not enough seats in the car. Dash sat at the back in the luggage storage. In front of him Paulina, Valerie and Tucker in the middle. Without exaggerating, man was he happy. A big grin was planted like a tattoo from his left ear to the right.  
Sam sat next to the driver, Danny's sister. She turned on the radio while Jazz started the engine.  
"I can't believe he went alone. He'll get himself killed." Sam complained about Danny's actions. Of course she was still mad.  
"Hey guys, I have news about Phantom." We heard Dash from the store room.  
"What is it?" Everyone shouted out and leaned to the back.  
"Calm down." He insisted.  
"Phantom faced the GiW." He read out loud the news.  
"Wait a second..." Sam murmured. The radio got louder.  
"- agreed to a duell with one of their best Agents. In exchange... what did the ghost say? Ah right, in exchange Phantom demands to talk with them." They heard the news lady talk.  
"What?!" They all shouted in unison, not wanting to believe this.  
"Don't forget. This is live, the video you'll find on our website-"  
"Why is he this dumb." Sam facepalmed. "Like they will ever listen to him, why can't he face _that_?"  
The group finally could see Amity Park from up the hills.  
"Finally..." Jazz mumbled distracted. She was worried to death about her little brother, but she couldn't show it. She was the oldest one, she had to show strength and confidence. But she sweared, she would kill Danny as soon as this was over.  
"Hey Tucker, you think you can hack into the digital devices of the GiW?" Jazz asked the geek.  
"I don't think I can!" He claimed proudly. "I already know I can. Nothing easier but that."  
A few minutes later it was already done.  
"The fight is over! Phantom destroyed Agent K's weapons. He did it! They are going to shake their hands! Are the GiW and Phantom finally having a truce moment?" Tucker cleaned his ears, much to the disgrace of the girls.  
"Wait, did I actually hear that right?" "Gross!" Paulina cried with her typical accent. Sam hated it so much. But maybe she only hated it because of the girl herself.  
"Oh no! He tricked the ghost boy! The kid is down! He is down!" The news lady bellowed like a moderator for a boxing champions League. Sam held on to the radio and hammered against it.  
"No he's not, he's not! You lying bitch!"  
"Phew, he stands up and is ready for fight number two!" The news lady updated relieved and the car calmed down.  
"Hey guys, I've got some contact!" Tucker yelled and everyone grew silent. They had to hear very carefully to understand what the PDA detected. But it was still unclear. Only tactics how agent K could defeat Danny. To be fair, that should be counted as cheating, since it was supposed to be a duel. At least Karma hit back very hard.  
"Oh. My. Gosh. The ghost just froze the GiW agent. He can't move and is defeated. The ghost child won. To no surprise honestly, 'cause Phantom is the best!" The news lady commented, clearly rooting for the ghost side.  
Everyone in the car cheered happily. Tucker shhhed everyone to silence, again killing the mood.  
*ok... can you hear us... Chief is going to distra ... boy. Commands to Agent ... invisi... suit on. Commands ... nt K, get ...ut of there....*  
Everyone went silent.  
"What does that mean?" Paulina broke the silence. No one really understood the full meaning of these broken words. As the three friends exchanged glances, they knew one thing for sure.  
"Danny is in danger..."

No beeping. The guns were lowered down and whispering travelled through the crowd. Everyone was confused and nervous.  
"What does that mean?" Operative Alpha continued curiously.  
"I am a halfa. Half ghost, half human. In an accident only half of me died. So I still live here. I have family and friends I need to protect." I confessed the truth hesitantly.  
Everyone was quiet. Did I do the right thing? I had no choice anyway? I was so scared right now in this moment.  
"So you want to tell us you are a hybrid?" Alpha swallowed loudly. I nodded. I saw him whispering something, probably to a communication device.  
"What did you just say?" I asked suspiciously.  
"I said it's amazing." He lied smoothly. Again I nodded, acting as if I'd really believe him.  
"Ah well fine. You know, if you're asking me, it sounded pretty like _Change_ _o_ _f_ _plan_ _s_." I raised one eyebrow. Alpha knew when he had lost. His eyebrows went down.  
Upon seeing his determined look I wanted to fly up, ectoplasm already loaded in my open palm.  
But then I felt something behind me. I turned around too late. Agent O was wearing an invisibility suit and shot out a ghost net in my direction. I stumbled down, the fabric pulling me towards the ground. My ectoplasm shot out somewhere I didn't know. I tried to destroy the net or phase through, but this one was ghost proof.  
Alpha chuckled and slowly marched towards me.  
"We've got him."

They drove quickly to Amity Park. The questioning had already started. Sam just hoped Danny wouldn't blabber out too much.  
"Guys, serious news..." They heard Dash from behind, but the radio news blended in.  
"Yeah Shanon, right, I'm on." The lady was still speaking to the studio, but immediately addressed their listeners afterwards.  
"Serious news to y'all. The ghost kid is still alive. We just found out that the boy is half human and half ghost."  
"What!" Everyone in the car screamed out loud. Some did because they were surprised, others because they were shocked Danny actually revealed part of his secret.  
*Change of plans* it got out of Tucker's PDA, finally a little bit clearer. Then they heard shots and explosions.  
*We've got him!* Sam hit the dashboard, her fist aching more than she actually did damage.  
"Fuck..."  
They were so happy minutes ago. This whole trip was an emotional rollercoaster.  
"I can't believe it..." Tucker covered his eyes.

"Let me out of here!" I screamed angrily.  
"Why are you doing this?"  
They knew I was human, they knew they would be locking up an innocent child. And still...  
The fact made me so angry. I took all the breath I could and roared out my rage. I roared it out till my ghostly wail was activated. Stronger than ever. The net fell into dust, the agents and their cars blasted away. Houses started to break, people screamed.  
Exhausted I crawled up. Every gun was pointed at me and I didn't know where to go. Great, now I didn't only loose a big secret of mine, it was also to no avail! Actually the situation got even worse.  
"Shoot!" I heard the command and already closed my eyes, ready to phase into the ground and disappear forever.  
Suddenly something unexpected happened.  
"No stop! Don't shoot! Don't. Shoot."  
I opened my eyes in confusion.  
"Mo- ah I mean Maddie?" But the ghost huntress ignored me.  
"Haven't you listened to this child? He is partly human. Yes, maybe only half of it, but still!" She started arguing confidently.  
"Please stop shielding the ghost." Alpha demanded politely but definitely annoyed. From distance I could notice Dad calling Mom.  
"No! How dare you to attack an innocent child. At least now we know that he is one of us we can finally leave him alone." Maddie defended me. Probably her mother feelings finally kicking in. Maybe that would work. A respectable ghost hunter protecting a ghost.  
"One of us?" Operative K laughed. Since when had he gotten out of my ice prison?  
"We don't even know how clever that ghost is! Ghosts can manipulate electronics, so he must have done it with our lie detector. No way we're believing such a crazy story!" K brang forward his argument.  
I can control electronical devices? Wow, I didn't even know that, but I definitely need to try that out!  
"Sorry to blend in, but I didn't even know about the lie detector nor where it was. So if I was able to control that thing, wouldn't it be already too late?"  
Maddie turned around to me.  
"You don't have influence on electronics?" She asked surprised, slightly whispering. I shrugged my shoulders.  
"I don't know, I'm still in learning." I answered in the same volume.  
"Don't chit chat with that ghost! Go away or we'll shoot you all together!" Alpha threatened furiously.  
"You should probably go. I still have a backup plan to disappear now and never to return again." I whispered only to Mom.  
"No way, you can't always run away and hide. You're parents will certainly miss you, won't they?"  
A smile appeared on my face. It felt good to have Mom on my side, finally, after all this time being enemies.  
"So what could ever convince you the boy to be harmless?" Mom shouted out the question at the GiW.  
For a moment it was so silent, it was like they were actually thinking of an answer. And they did think good about it. What they demanded made my blood freeze right in my veins.  
"Show us your true identity."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I'm really sorry to stop at a cliffhanger.  
> I just had a real smooth communication exam and it went pretty good actually. I'm extremely proud and I put a lot of effort into it, but something is seriously wrong with our English teachers.  
> I received a bad grade and it really bummed me out, especially since other students (not even better than me) received a far better grade (A+!?) with a different tutor.  
> I mean, how is that even possible?  
> Long story short: I'm totally disappointed in our system, have absolutely no motivation left and I probably suck in writing as well.  
> I really love this story, so I'mma put this on pause before I ruin it for me with my bad mood.  
> Thanks for understanding, I hope I can finish this story soon.


	12. XI.

I shook my head.   
"No... no way." I muttered utterly devastated. My limbs trembled uncontrollably. My eyes burned, still I was too paralyzed to blink.  
Mom glanced confused at me. She shrugged calmly, not picking up on my anxiety.  
"Why not? This is a good chance-"   
"Never!" I snapped eventually, pushing away a comforting hand. While blinking I kept my head to the ground. I wasn't crying. It resorted from the lack of eyelid movement, I swear.  
"They attacked me only minutes ago while knowing my secret. When they find out my real identity... that's it." I panted, sweat making it's way down my temple. I was stressed, cornered like a wild animal. I needed help, even if it would be something simple like talking to Sam or Jazz. Though that would give away everything. Not that they were even here. I left them in the cabin. Maybe I had some regrets in hindsight.  
"Listen son. We can't trust a ghost, in no actions. But if you proof to be a real human? We can't attack an innocent child now, can we?"   
For some reason Alpha reminded me of Vlad. His gestures, his way to speak, _act._   
I shook my head strongly to gain some sense.   
"How can I trust you, if you're not willing to trust me?" I asked agent Alpha urgently. It was the thing bothering me the most. I didn't expect him to have an answer. Even such a good one, that would corner me even more.  
"We are humans, aren't we? We should stick together. Unless... You aren't human?"   
Oh boy, this was a trap. I swallowed hard. Pearls of sweat running down my temple. My brain only screamed _Trap!_  
But again there was nothing I could do about it.

The news and the PDA just told the teenagers Danny broke out. Still they couldn't relax. They had found out Danny had to show his real identity. Then they would stop the attacking, for real.   
"I think they're lying. In the reality gauntlet incident they still hunted him down, although they knew he was part human." Sam whispered worried. Only Tucker understood what she was talking about and joined in.   
"But back then it was a surprise to them and they wanted to check it out. Now, since they talked everything through maybe they are ok with that." The geek tried to calm the goth as himself, but his hopes were crushed with the next updates.   
*Hybrid will detransform anytime... on my orders all shoot. No kills, I repeat, no kills! We need the hybrid alive for experiments, this'll be a breakthrough in science.*   
Tucker looked shocked to Sam and Jazz. His mouth open, speechless. His eyes held a sorrowful expression.  
"It's a trap. Danny will get captured when he's human." Jazz concluded with composure, her voice scratchy and raw. Swallowing only made her throat worse and her body threatened to spill tears.  
For a moment none of the three dared to breath. Then Tucker started wildly tipping on his PDA.   
"What are you doing?" Paulina asked curiosly, but Tucker was too caught up with the adrenaline to be polite.  
"What does it look like? I need to change orders!" He yelled panicked.  
"I'm wondering. You guys are acting way too overdramatic, like this would affect you in personal." They heard Valerie point out into the car room. This note brought Dash and Paulina to think closer about it. Tucker and Jazz were occupied, so all home laid with Sam to defend themselves and Danny.   
"Well... I wonder why you aren't so concerned about this! Without Phantom Amity Park has a serious ghost or smelly blossom box problem! This is about our future!" She implied wildly, also using her hands. Her lie had Dash and Paulina covered, but not the Red Huntress. Although she didn't answer to Sam's lie, she was still suspicious.   
"Danny Phantom will now reveal his true identity!" The radio shouted out excitedly.   
*Get on your positions.* It appeared at the same time out of Tucker's PDA.  
Sam started biting her fingernails out of complete stress. She had gotten used to stop doing that, but she couldn't care less. Not now when she had far worse problems.  
"Oh no..." She whined scared. Her heart pounding against her chest like a frantic techno beat.  
"Not on my watch!" Tucker yelled determined, still tapping like a maniac on his PDA.   
"I for myself would love to find out Phantom's true identity..." The girls at the front heard Paulina say and the strong agreement of Dash and Valerie.   
"Ugh! Shut. Up!" Sam finally snapped and roared at Paulina, ready to choke the frightened girl right here and then.  
"Tucker hurry!" Jazz screamed at her little brother's best friend, eyes locked to the street. They were alone on the boring road.  
"I'm already on it!" Tucker gasped, the stains under his armpits visible.  
"Now it's finally happening..." The news barely blended in, burning a hole in everyone's consciousness.  
Sam looked scared to the back to Tucker who was sweating like hell.   
*get ready...*   
It sounded scratchy and the quality was bad. Still you could hear the euphoria going with it.  
The radio went on again.   
Everyone froze.  
"He's human!"   
Just in time Tucker took control over the GiW communication system and shouted out loud into his PDA.   
"Lower the guns! Don't shoot! I repeat! Don't! Fucking! Shoot!"

My eyes were tightly closed when I floated down to the ground and slowly, yet gently revealed my human self. I expected shooting or anything, but nothing of that kind happened.   
I opened my eyes, a little bit confused and exhausted. My Mom was shocked as hell, but not only her. The ghost hunter boss looked at me, then at his Hazmat agents and back to me.   
"You? Sweetie?" Mom whispered, tears in her eyes.   
"I'm sorry Mo-" She took me into a deep hug. I could see how she would understand every lie, my sudden departure and all those times I came home too late. My drop of grades and my lack of sleep. Everything must've made sense now in her head. She released me and straightened up.   
"Why?" She asked me, obviously pointing out why I never told her about my secret. But my attention was somewhere else.   
Now that she released me from the hug I had a clear sight at agent Alpha again. He was furiously tipping on his phone. Our eyes met and I realized my mistake.   
"Shoot!"

I opened my eyes.   
I had no memories of what had happened after Alpha demanded his minions to shoot. Wearily I looked around me. A wall of ice had built itself to protect me. I found Mom passed out in Dad's arms.   
"Mom!" I cried, life returning to me with such a force. I flinched upon Dad pointing a gun at me. A barely audible gasp escaped my lips. I have done a lot of things wrong as a son. I have never seen such a furious expression on my Dad's face.   
"Stay away, ghost!" He spat, hate filling his words.   
"She helped you and that's how you thank her?" He started crying and my heart crushed into pieces. My lip trembled against my will and my whole body was shivering. I was _scared_ of my father.  
"I...I didn't...I didn't do this on purpose..." I sobbed making steps backwards.   
"Danny!"   
My head snapped desperately into the direction. My friends and sister came up running. Pictures of me freezing my sister's hands came back flashing through my brain.   
"Danny! Are you alright?"  
No. They couldn't come nearer. For their own safety. With my hands I signalled them to keep their distance.   
"Stay away from me!" I warned them, afraid to believe the truth. Afraid of my own powers.   
Afraid of myself.  
"We told you, a ghost is and stays a monster." Alpha drew the conclusion ignorantly. He didn't spare a look at the scene, rather inspecting his magnificent weapon.  
"No he's not!" Sam defended me confidently. She thought she knew what I was. Maybe she knew me, but not my powers, who seemed to be forming an entirely new will.  
"You attacked him! You are the real monsters! Danny's ghost powers only protected him!"   
I was so glad to have a friend like her, but she was way to near to me. I felt no control over my ice powers and already started shivering again.  
"We all saw what he did to an innocent bystander. His _own_ mother." The words were full of disbelief and disgust. Shameful tears marked themselves on my flushed cheeks. I didn't want to hurt her. I didn't want to hurt anyone at all!   
"Capture him!" Agent Alpha commanded. Immediately every gun was positioned towards me. I was too perplexed to do something, but my powers weren't. Before they could pull the trigger I saw ice rays shooting out of my hands without wanting it.   
"No! Stop!" I screamed, but it just kept going. Agent after agent dropped, hopefully only unconscious, to the ground. I grabbed my arm and tried to stop it with force, but it didn't stop shooting out of my bare hands. My whole body was pulled backwards with the next shot and I stumbled to keep my balance.  
Agent K focused on my arm and actually hit it. This changed the way of my ice ray dramatically. My powers did something I could never forgive them.   
Never.   
A stray shot was accidentally being released straight at Sam. I saw the shock in her eyes, the small o her lips formed, till the ice beam hit her head and knocked her down.   
"No!!" I cried heartbroken. Thank god my powers finally took a break. I dashed towards her, fell on my knees. I hesitated to hold up body, it looked so fragile in my eyes. I took a deep breath to gather up bravery. I checked her pulse. Weak, but it was there. I clenched her onto my chest and waged her, the traumatic experience pumping like cold eyes through every fiber of my body.   
I really thought I've lost her. My hands grabbed her dark hair that slowly took a strong shade of white.   
"No... God... please no..." I mumbled terrified, my whole body trembling.  
"What are you waiting for? Catch the boy!" I heard Alpha's orders. This would be a certain suicide for every agent. My powers seemed to give me the ability of immortality.   
So why would they attack me? Maybe they did it because they saw me distracted. Broken and depressed. Or they followed strictly orders, without thinking for themselves once.  
I didn't care anymore. I buried my face into Sam's hairs and cried. I cried, ignoring every noise. The sharp sizzles of ice, piercing into fresh human flesh. The pained cries of men, who probably faced their last horrible moments on this cruel world. I cried so long till silence won, again.   
I couldn't bare the drumming noise penetrating my ears. I dared to look back up. It was a mistake, I just knew this would hunt me up to my darkest dreams.   
Most of the operatives and Hazmat agents were pierced to death by ice spikes. The blood ran down the blue ice needles spreading from the ground. They were all circled around me and I looked straight into agent Alpha's torn open eyes.   
"Murder..." He whispered, not wanting to believe the death of his best agents and half of his organization. Neither did I want to.   
I looked into the dead eyes staring at me. Killed in motion, when they were screaming because they realized the death command. I shook my head.   
"I... it wasn't... I didn't..." But I continued crying. What would I even say if I could? It wasn't me? Who else could control ice among us?  
I couldn't just have murdered these men? I didn't think of using my powers, so why did they activate?   
I came here to talk to them. I even revealed my biggest secret. I wanted to solve this problem in a peaceful way so why did they have to be dead now?   
"What did you do, Daniel?" I turned around in shock to look at a disappointed Vlad. A Vlad who must've come to my rescue, but was now rethinking his decisions. Why? Because he looked down on a monster. When even your enemy looks at you that way... What was left for me to live in this world?  
"I... thought you were... Why Daniel?"   
Not even the annoying nickname. Yes I hated it, just like him. But I didn't realize how much he meant to me. He was my enemy, but somehow he was still someone I could relate to. He had the same powers and could control them perfectly. I looked up to him, in a weird way, I also wanted to achieve that. And now I was at the bottom and couldn't control my powers at all. And turned into a murderer.  
"Help me..." I sobbed, not knowing what to do next or at all. As hard as it felt to admit, I needed guidance. _His_ guidance.  
One thing was for sure, I couldn't stay at Amity Park. Or America at all. I shivered, the thought if I could even stay on earth scared me. No, it horrified me to the core. I liked to see myself as a fighter, never backing away, never giving up. It was an illusion. In reality death seemed to be the best solution I got. That is unless Vlad couldn't offer me help. Just this once, pulling me out of this mess and helping me back on my feet.  
But instead he backed away from me. If even he didn't see a way to get me out of this, I truly was a hopeless case. Unfortunately no one could save me from this misery thanks to my ice powers.  
I looked back at Sam who became suddenly a lot colder. No, but she had a pulse, right? She wouldn't die. Maybe it was me. It was my touch that slowly let her freeze from the inside.   
I laid her down, gently on the ground. I had to go, now or never. My actions were interrupted by a gun being loaded, right next to my ear.   
"You are going nowhere." I looked into agent K's furious face. He had a wound, a big gash on his head.   
"You killed my partner. I guess it's now eye for an eye." He panted, growling like a wild animal. My breath hitched, so I closed my eyes to keep the little control I had left.  
"I'm sorry." A tear accompanied my whisper. Naturally I flinched with the gunshot.  
The bullet froze midair. I didn't need to look at the agent. After seeing all these corpses, my imagination of his fate had become advanced. I took a long breath.  
"Go away!" I cried out to everyone who thought of coming nearer to me.   
"Just go!" My enhanced hearing granted me to detect something I wished I never had. Things like these make me realized I was cursed the day I was incapable of dying.  
"He is too dangerous. We need to kill him, instantly." I looked at Agent Alpha. How was he planning on killing me? Like the others? Who are dead now! But he had a surprise for me. He himself pointed his gun at me.   
"No..." I whispered, not knowing whose death was more likely.   
"You know you are a threat to everyone. Not only to your enemies. No, also to your friends and family."   
I thought about his words. It was the painful truth. I refused to believe it, but part of me already knew it.  
"It is better like this, Phantom. For everyone."   
My breath went to an extreme height and I started hyperventilating. I would die now. I would die now for real. The worst thing was, that my death would be for the best. How was this my fate after everything I had done for this city? Guess playing the hero only brought pain and misery into my life.  
Would I become a full ghost now? Or would I vanish forever? I philosophy I kept thinking about at night in my bed.   
I gained sight at his gun. FG-4.38mm 6shots. Yep, this weapon would definitely kill me.   
I had studied all kinds of ghost killing weapons to know which ones I had to fear and which ones were nearly harmless.   
This one was rare but deadly. It melts ectoplasm in an instant. And since my blood was mixed with quite a lot of ectoplasm, being shot by that would kill me no matter where it lands. I would vanish for all eternity.   
He loaded the gun and I tried to calm down. It's better like this, for everyone, I remembered his words. And he was right. I couldn't control my powers and it didn't matter where I would go, I was nowhere pleased to be seen. Not even in the ghost zone. Like I said, I'm both ghost and human, but neither accepted by any of these sides.   
So let's get this finally over with. I tried to suppress my powers and closed my eyes. But cursing again my sensitive hearing. I heard a gun being loaded. Agent Alpha's gun already was, so it was a different gun holder, with the same weapon though. I opened my eyes and turned around, just in time to see my world crash into million of pieces.   
I could observe the bullet reaching my eyes. In slow motion. But the bullet wasn't the worst thing. It was the man behind the ghost killing gun.

_I'm_ _so_ _proud_ _of_ _you_ _._

I remembered the feelings he gave me by saying that in Blueville. And now he was the one to kill me.   
In his eyes I could read anger and disappointment towards me. And this hurt more than any bullet could ever. Before the bullet splashed my right eye, I realized one thing.   
I wasn't ready to die.

Then my world exploded.


	13. Special Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I finally reached up to the present! (But I'll keep writing in the past because I prefer it xD)  
> Now shit's starting to get real (promise!) ...   
> So before that I wanted to make a short chapter without Danny. Yeah, it hurts, but I figured out it's the easiest way to show what happened after the incident. If you can't stand a chapter without our favourite ghost, skip this one, it's still possible to understand the story without it (I think :P)  
> So, be ready for a new chap with a lot of more pain :)

The girl laid in her room and stared at her luggage. She wasn't quite happy to move from Amity Park, but they had no other choice. It was an emergency evacuation after all.   
"Sweetie, we have to go!" Her mother called her, so she stood up. She dragged the luggage with her, but stopped when she reached one closed door. Her sorrowful eyes acknowledged the frost on the dark wood.   
The house cracked again and she remembered they had to move away quickly. When she arrived downstairs she found her parents already outside the house.   
They had to leave many things behind and it did hurt a lot. It was her home after all. The girl was about to go out when she spotted something. It was a family photo. All together. Her Mom must've forgotten it, so the girl kept it for herself. She closed the door and went to the car.   
"Give me your luggage." Her father insisted. She opened the car door, as soon as her parents started fighting again. Of course she could understand her mother's choice to divorce from her father. The girl couldn't forgive her father either. But she missed the times when they were a happy family. All together. Mom, Dad, Jazz and her little brother Danny.

The boy sat in the van.   
He didn't talk much, only responded with nodding to his parents.   
The emergency evacuation had forced the whole town to leave everything behind. They had only packed things that fitted in the car. At least the government promised to finance all new homes for the citizens of Amity Park. But he was sure that wouldn't happen so soon.   
"Tucker, I know it's hard for you."   
"You don't know anything." The boy hissed annoyed by his parents. He hated it when they remembered him of what had happened to his best friend.   
And mostly he hated the fact that they saw in Danny a monster. Some news claimed Danny was possessed by a ghost and all, but Tucker knew better.   
His friend may have been a living corpse, but he was still his friend Danny. He hadn't changed since the accident. Only to the better.   
Tucker sighed and put on his headphones. He needed to relax. To move on.

The man passed the boarders of Amity Park. He was now officially out of the cursed city. Although he didn't see it that way. Maybe he wasn't so popular by a lot of people, but he was still one of the sensitive side. The thing that happened to the Fentons had moved him quite a lot.   
He didn't saw a monster in the kid.   
He saw in him his pupil, always trying his best and to accept things how they are.   
He felt sorry for the boy. For saving the city multiple times he only gained detention, hate and suspicious people as gratitude. And he just kept on going. This kid was no monster, he deserved a true medal.   
The teacher sighed. It all had happened and now belonged to the past. His main problem would be finding a new home now.   
He was one of the lucky ones who found refugee by relatives, though he wasn't so happy to meet his overprotective mother again. She would only tell him that she always knew becoming a teacher was a bad idea. And Mr. Lancer was aware, his career as a teacher was over. He couldn't do the job anymore after what had happened.   
He needed to move on.

He entered the car and looked outside the window. He wasn't in the mood to talk. His parents accepted that, gladly. For a while at least.   
"You know son, one time I also had a role model. Other than my dad of course."   
The boy's father tried to cheer him up.   
"He was the best football player and I looked up to him. So one day I went to one of his games. Oh man was he good. But when I asked him for a signature on my football, I realized he was anything else but that cool guy I looked up to. In reality he was really mean. I never got my autograph, but I didn't want it anyway." His Dad explained, only making his son more mad.   
"That's not the same. Don't compare him ever again to some football player." He grumbled under his breath.  
"Dash, what your father meant-"   
"I don't care what he meant!" The Bully snapped angrily.   
"Phantom was a good guy! And I will always look up to Danny! He is a true hero!"   
His parents were silent, but they belonged to the group who saw a monster in Danny. Dash plugged in his earphones so he wouldn't need to hear the bullshit of his parents.   
Understand him... Tz, no one could!   
He had bullied his role model several times. And now he realized that Fenton could've easily fought back.   
But he didn't. Dash would never understand why. At least he could now pay admiration for both sides of Danny.   
And he thought they could've become friends if the universe had given him a chance.   
Maybe he should give others a chance. The fault was all his now, he couldn't blame it on someone else. He just remembered the night with Phantom, where he had opened his eyes. He would never forget him, that's for sure.   
But he needed to move on.

The man left the house to grab his newspaper. It had turned freezing cold since a week although it was the middle of summer.  
He grabbed his coffee and took a big sip. Bitter. Coffee never tasted that bad. He couldn't deny it anymore, he needed something far stronger. Like a good old whiskey, or wodka.   
_Why_ _not both,_ he thought when he rummaged through his alcohol closet. He took a stylish glass for his drink, but upon looking at the newspaper, he shrugged his shoulder and placed it back. Next the bottle was on his lips and he poured the strong liquid quickly down.   
He dropped down on his leather chair and overlooked the news. His eyes kept locked onto a certain picture. His hands carefully travelled over the page.  
A gigantic ice sculpture, nothing special about it. It looked like a stranded iceberg in the middle of the city.   
The only thing strange about it was the boy, deep within the core. He was completely frozen, his skin pale, shining like the sun. Raven black hair, frozen in motion, indicating how he probably had moved his head into the other direction.   
His eyes were a novel. They told the sorrowful story about fear, shock, disbelief and confusion.   
The man read so much more of the picture, than of the text below, where every citizen of Amity Park was forced to evacuate. All because of the ice the young human was trapped inside. It spread like a dangerous decease, freezing every house and every human in it's way.  
"Oh Daniel..." The man sighed and suffocated his sorrow in alcohol. He pushed the paper away and leaned his upper body on his arms, hiding his eyes in his palm. His elbows protested at the connection with the hard wood, his palms became all wet and salty. But he knew worse.  
 _Like frozen_ _into_ _an_ _iceberg_ _._  
He thought with a sad grin.   
And he also knew who was to blame for this disastrous outcome.  
"It's all my fault..." Vladimir Masters sighed with an unsteady voice. He couldn't come to forget what he had done weeks ago.   
The only existing Halfa beside Danny. The poor boy had lost his control over his power. Even when he couldn't really help him with ice powers, he was the only one who could've helped him in the situation.   
Maybe that kid was a pain in his ass, but damn he loved him! He was the child of his dreams!   
So what had he done?  
He abandoned him! Treated him like he was a monster. It wasn't fair of him and he regretted it dearly.  
Would he ever see Danny again? So he could beg for forgiveness? Even so, could Danny forgive him?  
He grabbed the bottle of whiskey and took a big sip. No.  
He couldn't keep up with the dead.   
He needed to move on.

The girl laid in her room and stared at her luggage. She didn't want to leave Amity Park. Her friend was still here. But the whole world forced her to. Her parents called her and so she stood up.   
She walked past the mirror and looked at her snow white hair. This had given her quite the shock at the hospital.   
But not as much as seeing Danny. She had ran away from the hospital and reached the mayor's place. A lot of GiW workers had been working out there, trying to get Danny out.   
Her best friend and secret love. He was trapped in an ice crystal, a grave he made himself. It was a quite fascinating view, since her friend had been frozen in motion. One side was transformed into Phantom, the other one was their school buddy Fenton.   
Back then she had fallen on her knees and cried. She couldn't accept the death of her beloved friend. Not after she had sworn to protect him. And there he was, trapped in the ice he had created to protect himself from the GiW.   
With that the drama started for real. The temperatures dropped. It was summer and they had temperatures like 5°C. Then the water started freezing, and eventually the rain exchanged with the snow. The streets were getting all icy and it was finally they realized, everything had started since Danny had been frozen.   
The GiW didn't manage to move nor free the boy, so he just kept standing at the mayor's place. It was then Tucker and Sam decided to ask in the ghost zone for help.   
They travelled into the ghost zone, right to the only ghost who understood the dangerous ice powers better than anyone.   
They explained everything to Frostbite. How Danny had a freezing in his core and lost control of his powers. How the powers started killing people and how they trapped him into ice.   
Frostbite just asked what had happened before the freezing in the core had appeared. It wasn't necessary for the two friends to think much about the question.   
_"He_ _got_ _hit_ _by_ _his_ _own_ attack."   
" _By_ _accident_ _." Tucker_ _added_ _._  
 _Frostbite_ _nodded_.   
" _Ice_ _powers are different_ _to_ _normal ghost powers."_ _The_ _ghost_ _started_ _telling_.   
" _It_ _has_ _it's_ _own_ _will._ _That's_ _why_ _the_ _user_ _needs_ _control_ _over_ _the_ _power, at all times."_  
 _"_ _But_ _Danny had control_ _over_ _it_ _._ _Until_ _the_ _accident_ _." Sam_ _pointed_ _out._  
 _"_ _That_ _is_ _right_ _. T_ _h_ _e_ _ice_ _powers hurt_ _it's_ _own_ _user._ _For_ _the_ _ice_ _powers inside of_ _him_ _it_ _was a terrible_ _mistake_ _._ _It_ _wanted_ _to_ _make sure_ _to_ _protect_ _its_ _host_ _from_ _now_ _on_ _even_ _more_ _. So_ _when_ _Danny was_ _unable_ _to_ _protect_ _himself_ _,_ _the_ _ice_ _powers_ _took_ _over_ _their_ _own_ _will."_ _Frostbite ended his presentation, scratching his fury chin with his self made ice amputation._  
 _Tucker_ _thought_ _for_ _a moment._  
 _"_ _That_ _would_ _explain_ _his frozen_ _room_ _while_ _the_ _blossom_ _box_ _incident_ _and_ _how_ _the_ _GiW_ _couldn't_ _kill Danny in_ _the_ _end_ _."_  
 _"_ _But_ _it_ _doesn't_ _explain_ _why_ _the_ _ice_ _powers_ _murdered_ _Danny." Sam_ _complained_ _bitterly_ _._ _Her eyes threatened again to spill tears._  
 _Frostbite_ _chuckled_ _._  
 _"_ _There's_ _no explanation_ _needed_ _. Danny_ _is_ _alive_ _."_  
 _The_ _two_ _friends_ _couldn't_ _believe_ _what_ _the_ _ghost just said_ _and_ _cheered_ _up._  
 _"_ _When_ _will he_ _get_ _out? How can_ _we_ _free_ _him_ _?"_ _They_ _asked_ _filled_ _with_ _motivation._ _Frostbite's_ _face_ _darkened_ _._  
 _"_ _Until_ _the_ _ice_ _powers will_ _consider_ _Danny_ _as_ _safe."_  
 _"_ _That's_ _why_ _Amity_ _Park_ _is_ _freezing_ _?" Sam_ _asked_ _, one eyebrow raised._  
 _"Not_ _only_ _Amity_ _Park." Frostbite confessed concerned._  
 _Sam_ _widened_ _her_ _eyes_ _._   
When would the ice powers consider Danny as safe?   
She realized the answer couldn't be easier. He has been hunted by humans and nowhere in the world he'd be accepted anymore. There was simply no place for the halfa. So his powers wouldn't rest until there was no one left to hurt him. Until the whole earth was frozen and all human beings dead.  
Sam gazed outside the window of the car. Fleeing from Amity Park was the first step, but definitely not the last one. They had to find a new living place, other than earth.   
The girl was aware that her life would be anything other than normal. What she dreamed of with Danny at the forest - Impossible.   
This wasn't the end. Just the opposite. Now the fight against the end of the world would start. And she would wait a hundred years. She wouldn't rest, until she could see Danny again.   
Danny was alive. That was everything she needed to know. It helped her to move on. To move on to the day where she would meet him again.   
Danny...

The ghost watched the great ice crystal. It was quite magical. Of course he was a strong ghost himself, but he could never create something like that to save his own life. Well he didn't need to, he had no time to die anyway.   
"Clockwork. For the last time. You need to interfere. If this goes on like that, the ghost zone will be in trouble, too." His observants panicked.   
Clockwork laughed.   
"What can I do? I can travel through time and send ghosts as humans in it. But still, I cannot change what happened."   
The one eyed minions exchanged riddled looks.  
"Only the one who has written the story can change what's written. And our story writer is not available for now." He pointed with his head at the crystal with the poor boy in it.  
"Then get Danny from the past and make him-" Clockwork laughed out really loud. What fools they are.   
"How can he change something unwritten? No, we have to wait patiently for his awakening."   
"The ghost zone will suffer under it." The observants objected offended.   
The ghost nodded.   
"Everyone will. Everyone..." He knew what he was talking about. Time was relevant. He wasn't only here, now in this so called presence. He was also living at the time where Danny made his mistake to reveal his identity. So it was obvious that he was also living in the future now, whereas others already called the future their present time.   
Time is complicated and exhausting, Clockwork knew, but it was a job he had to do.

He sent away his minions and glanced one last time at his protege.   
Destiny had prepared great plans for the hybrid. Clockwork knew, horrible paths were awaiting the boy. Paths he couldn't walk with him.   
"You wanted to talk to me?"   
Another time, another story. In this timeline, Phantom's downfall was already common history.   
The master of times smiled. The person behind him grew pretty annoyed.  
"I have no time for your games." The voice growled rather quiet.  
"Want me to lend you some? I have plenty of time." Clockwork mocked his guest smugly.  
"That's it. I'm leaving." The other person decided indefinitely.  
"A glimmer of hope is shining weakly in this dark future." Clockwork spoke up, making his guest groan.   
"Don't you come me with riddles!"   
The time ghost didn't bother. He knew the person behind him had had an unhappy and hopeless life. Like everyone in this timeline.  
"I have a delivery of hope. Good news and bad news." The ghost explained rolling his eyes. This timeline really killed all the fun.   
His guest stayed quiet, patiently awaiting the message.   
"In a few years energy will fade and reveal a new world."   
"We can return to earth?"   
The question echoed in the dark room. It seemed almost too easy to crush the little amount of hope.  
"A broken world."   
Silence filled the room. The guest already wanted to disappear, again, but Clockwork's presence stopped him.   
"The writer will awake."   
The ghost behind Clockwork turned around, shocked and happy at the same time.   
"Could it be...?"  
Clockwork nodded.   
"By the time slowly following, everyone will know the truth. But only you'll be knowing the hiding place of our shining flicker of hope." Clockwork announced the immense responsibility he was ready to burden his guest with.  
"I can't..." The voice croaked guilty. Clockwork was aware of the reason. But he was also aware of his own future. The ghost boy wouldn't be safe here anymore.  
"When old ice will melt in the ocean of never-ending, past will fade away, like dust in the wind.   
Vanished in the horizon.   
Bygones will be bygones.   
Don't look back.   
See the future, to glance at the past.   
That finally everyone can live in the present."   
The ghost spoke, tears streaming down his face. Although the time ghost was wise and omniscient, he could never explain his sadness.   
Was it the price? The price for sending a child on this horrible path?  
Quickly he turned around, for the first time after their conversation.  
His guest was gone. The next time his guest would appear would be to take a delivery. A delivery of hope.  
The master of times buried his face in his palms. His heart was aching when images of the future passed through his head.   
No matter how much he despised his observants. He was the same.  
His given was a curse.  
He could see.  
He could control.  
But he could never change fate.  
All he could do was observe.   
Observe the downfall of his beloved child.  
True.   
It was a painful truth, Clockwork knew.  
But it was a job he had to do.


End file.
